Strike Witches: The Battle for Midway
by Thorthemighty321
Summary: At a lonely outpost in the Middle of the Pacific a thousand miles from anywhere. Thousands of young men and women were going to engage in the most crucial battle of 2nd Neuroi War. This is a story of martyrs and heroes, admirals and airmen, of secret codes and lucky hunches, of lost chances, and the painful cost of victory. This is the inspiring story of The Battle for Midway.
1. Vital Information

**A/N: I don't anything save for the OCs. Note this is the Strike Witches Version of the Battle of Midway. The Neuroi ships, well some of them belong to Colonel AmiruddinArifSulaiman, same with some of the magic abilities.**

 **XXXX**

 **Important Information; without this information you will have a hard time understanding the story.**

Expect the Torpedo Bombers, particularly the Liberions to suffer heavily. With the complete and utter destruction of one Torpedo Bomber Squadron VT-8, with VT-3 and VT-6 both taking very heavy losses.

As for the planes that the Neuroi will be using will be an amalgamation of planes that are Russian, Swedish, and British.

Fighters: Lavochkin La-11Ns (fictional carrier based Version of the La-11)

Torpedo Bombers/Level Bombers: Fairey Spearfish

Dive Bombers: Saab 17C

Heavy Bomber: Myasishchev M-4

* * *

The two nations taking part in fighting against the Neuroi are going to be the United States of Liberion and the Empire of Fuso. Also note that the Striker Units while good for the Fusoans the Liberions are well crap.

The Fusoan Striker Units are going to be as follows: A6M2 Type 0 Model 32s, B5N2 "Kate", D3A1 "Val", Ki-43-I Mark 1C "Oscar", Ki-44-I "Tojo", G4M1 "Betty", H6K "Mavis", and two experimental D4Y-1C Striker Units.

The Liberion Striker Units are going to be as follows: SBD-2 and SBD-3 Dauntless Dive Bomber, TBD Devastator, PBY Catalina, TBF-1 Avenger Torpedo Bomber, B-17E Flying Fortress Heavy Bomber, SB2U-3 Vindicator Dive Bomber, F2A3 Buffalo, F4F-3A Wildcats, F4F-4 Wildcats, and B-26 Marauder Medium Bomber.

* * *

The Liberions have following ships:

Three Aircraft Carriers

Seven Heavy Cruisers

One Light Cruiser

Fifteen Destroyers

Sixteen Submarines

* * *

The Fusoans have the following ships:

Four Aircraft Carriers

Two Battleships

Two Heavy Cruisers

One Light Cruiser

Twelve Submarines

Sixteen Float Planes (not used)

* * *

For Aircraft the Allies will have combined:

481 Carrier Based Aircraft; 233 are Liberion Aircraft and 248 are Fusoan Aircraft

168 Land Based Aircraft; 127 are Liberion Aircraft and 41 are Fusoan Aircraft

* * *

For Witches, the numbers are pretty high:

The Fusoans have 184 Carrier Based Witches and 23 Ground Based Witches

The Liberions have 142 Carrier Based Witches and 74 Ground Based Witches

* * *

The Fusoan Aircraft Carriers are carrying the following:

IFN _Akagi_ :

24 A6M Zero Fighters

18 D3A1 "Val" Dive Bombers

18 B5N2 "Kate" Torpedo Planes

18 Fighter Witches

12 Dive Bomber Witches

16 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

IFN _Kaga_ :

27 A6M Zero Fighters

20 D3A1 "Val" Dive Bombers

27 B5N2 "Kate" Torpedo Planes

20 Fighter Witches

12 Dive Bomber Witches

16 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

IFN _Hiryu_ :

21 A6M Zero Fighters

18 D3A1 "Val" Dive Bombers

18 B5N2 "Kate" Torpedo Planes

18 Fighter Witches

12 Dive Bomber Witches

16 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

IFN _Soryu_ :

21 A6M Zero Fighters

16 D3A1 "Val" Dive Bombers

18 B5N2 "Kate" Torpedo Planes

2 D4Y-1C "Judy" pre-production dive bombers

18 Fighter Witches

12 Dive Bomber Witches

14 Torpedo Bomber Witches

2 witches flying D4Y-1C Strikers

* * *

The Liberion Aircraft Carriers are carrying the following:

USS _Yorktown_ CV-5

25 F4F-4 Wildcat Fighters

37 SBD-3 Dive Bombers

15 TBD-1 Devastators

15 Fighter Witches

22 Dive Bomber Witches

10 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

USS _Enterprise_ CV-6

27 F4F-4 Wildcat Fighters

37 SBD-3 Dive Bombers

14 TBD-1 Torpedo Bombers

16 Fighter Witches

20 Dive Bomber Witches

10 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

USS _Hornet_ CV-8

27 F4F-4 Wildcat Fighters

35 SBD-3 Dive Bombers

15 TBD-1 Torpedo Bombers

15 Fighter Witches

24 Dive Bomber Witches

10 Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

Land-Based Aircraft Stationed at Midway Island:

 **United States Navy**

31 PBY-5 Catalina Seaplanes

6 TBF-1 Avenger Torpedo Bombers

14 PBY-5 Catalina Witches

3 TBF-1 Avenger Torpedo Bomber Witches

* * *

 **United States Army Air Forces** (wasn't called the United States Air Force until '47)

4 B-26 Marauders

17 B-17 Flying Fortresses

2 B-26 Marauder Witches

6 B-17 Flying Fortress Witches

* * *

 **United States Marine Corps**

27 SBD-2 Dive Bombers

17 SB2U-3 Vindicator Dive Bombers

21 Brewster Buffalos F2A-3s (Called the Flying Coffin by USMC pilots)

7 F4F-3A Wildcat Fighters

1 Light Utility Aircraft

25 SBD-2 Dive Bomber Witches

14 SB2U Vindicator Dive Bomber Witches

18 F2A-3 Brewster Buffalo Fighter Witches

4 F4F-3A Wildcat Fighter Witches (The Wildcat was still a pretty new fighter at the time)

* * *

 **Imperial Fusoan Army**

6 G4M1 "Betty" Medium Bombers

25 Ki-43-I Mark 1C "Oscar" Fighters

6 Ki-44-I Hei "Tojo" Fighters

15 Ki-43-I Mark 1C "Oscar" Fighter Witches

2 Ki-44-I Hei "Tojo" Fighter Witches

4 G4M1 "Betty" Bomber Witches

* * *

 **Imperial Fusoan Navy**

10 H6K "Mavis" Flying Boats

4 H6K "Mavis" Flying Boat Witches

Midway Atoll is composed of two decent sized islands so I really couldn't squeeze that many extra planes, in fact just so the Liberions and Fusoans aren't so crowded the Fusoans are using all of Eastern Island, which is the smaller of the two Islands at 366 Acres compared to Sand Island which 1117 Acres.

* * *

Now it's time for the 800lb Gorilla to enter the arena. The Neuroi are going to be fielding quite the force or really two forces, composed of the following composition of ships; note original ones will have the ship they are based on in parentheses. The first force listed is the Carrier Group:

Four _Storm Cloud_ -class Super Carriers; Aircraft Complement: 110 each

Two _Terminator_ -class Fleet Carriers ( _Kuznetsov_ -class Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruiser); Aircraft Complement: 85 each

Three _Ravager_ -class Fast Battleships ( _Alsace_ -class Battleship)

Two _Warlock_ -class Battlecruisers ( _Stalingrad_ -class Battlecruiser)

Four _Exterminator_ -class Heavy Cruisers

Two _Hawkeye_ -class Heavy Cruisers ( _P_ -class Heavy Cruiser)

One _Wraith_ -class Light Cruiser ( _M_ -class Light Cruiser)

Ten _Silent_ -class Destroyers

Eight _Hunter_ -class Destroyers ( _Udaloy-II_ -class ASW Destroyer)

* * *

The second force is an Invasion Fleet for Midway Island once the enemy Aircraft Carriers have been destroyed and the runways at Midway have been put out of commission:

One _Hell_ -class Super Battleship

Three _Ravager_ -class Fast Battleships

Three _Warlock_ -class Battlecruisers

Two _Grunt_ -class Light Carriers ( _II_ -class Aircraft Carrier); Aircraft Complement: 23 each

Eight _Slayer_ -class Heavy Cruisers ( _Canarias_ -class Heavy Cruiser)

Six _Wraith_ -class Light Cruisers

Twelve _Silent_ -class Destroyers

Eight _Hunter_ -class Destroyers

Four _Savage_ -class Amphibious Transport Docks ( _Type 071_ Amphibious Transport Dock)

Approximately 35 Support Ships

The amount of aircraft the Neuroi are going to be fielding is awe-inspiring; with 610 Carrier Based Aircraft, nearly 20 Scout Planes based on various ships, and based out of Neuroi held Wake Island 35 M-4 Heavy Bombers. All told the Neuroi were fielding 665 Aircraft.

* * *

I am going to try to get this story as close to historically accurate as humanly possible. Yet I am only human so expect some mistakes. However let's get this show on the road.


	2. Opening Moves

**A/N: Let us begin the story of the Strike Witches: The Battle for Midway. Again I don't own anything but my own content.**

 **Before you ask, yes during the strike on Midway one of the buildings hit was the Laundry Mat. Admiral Fletcher had the majority of his clothing incinerated save for what he was wearing.**

 **Also if you are wondering how the Carriers are able to squeeze so many Witches onboard it's because they gave up a good portion of the Marine Compliment.**

 **Note the Neuroi will have a flag. Also all Neuroi ships, will have black hulls and red weapon muzzles and windows, while the deck will appear as if it is redwood. Depending on the class, if it is a light or heavy cruiser there is a Yellow Deer on the Weather Deck aft of the last main gun battery turret, where as if it is a Battleship or Battlecruiser it is on the forward part of the weather deck, before the first main gun turret. Think of German Warships from WWII for placement of the Deer.**

 **I should also note that there are varying accounts on how Joseph Rochefort and Edwin Layton proposed the ruse that they carried out to Chester Nimitz. Thus I went with one possible route. As for how it transpired with the Ruse itself I went with a near copy of what was portrayed in the 1976 Film Midway. However while I am going for historical accuracy it won't be completely historically accurate.**

 **XXXX**

 _1998_

Midway; a tiny atoll of coral and sand, a thousand miles from anywhere. However on a blue morning in early June 1942, Liberion and Fuso fought the Neuroi for control of the Pacific and changed the history of the world.

Walking toward the pier where the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Vessel _Atlantis_ was tied up; was four veterans of the war. Two Liberions Samantha Sergi and Harry Ferrier and two Fusoans; Saki Yoshida and Mitsuo Fuchida. These four veterans haven't been to this place in nearly 60 years, they were joining an Expedition funded by the National Geographic Society and led by Dr. Robert Ballard. Ballard's quest is to find the eight Aircraft Carriers lost at Midway, including Sergi's ship the USS _Yorktown_ and the Fusoan Aircraft Carrier _Kaga_.

Just before they would have walked onto the quay, Saki suddenly stumbled and would have fallen, but Harry caught her. "You alright?" He asked. Saki shook her head in response. "What's wrong, Saki?" Mitsuo asked.

"I was one of the fighter witches that shot down on June 4th 1942 defending Midway from the first enemy attack on the island. I had a flashback; I was in pursuit of an enemy dive bomber that had just put a bomb into the Laundry mat. When suddenly an enemy fighter got on my six and opened fire. Before I even had a chance to react, it had racked fire across my strikers and me. One of my Strikers exploded into a ball of fire and the other one just died, and I went plunging into the water about two hundred feet off shore near this very quay. I had just surfaced and saw that fighter wheeling around to strafe me in the drink when suddenly a Buffalo appeared trailing fire from its engine, a Neuroi dive bomber on its tail just peppering it with fire. The Buffalo must have been out of ammunition for the pilot rammed his plane into the enemy fighter, both planes in an instant becoming a twisted unrecognizable mess, the enemy dive bomber barely avoided getting caught up in that mess. I was only thirteen years old when this happened, I still have nightmares about it." Saki explained whimpering a little.

Samantha gave out a long slow whistle. "Wow Saki. If you think that was amazing; I was the only Witch flying Devastator Striker Units from VT-3 to survive the attack on the enemy fleet. To this day, I have no idea how I survived, when my two best friends didn't. I mean hell I was one of only eight Liberion torpedo bomber witches who actually succeeded in dropping her torpedoes. But thanks to the torpedoes being crappy-ass Mark 13s one missed so spectacularly that it should have been ashamed of itself, while the other ran straight and true, hit the target a _Storm Cloud_ if I remember right but failed to explode. I was really damned angry with _that_ result, let me tell you." Samantha said letting out a low growl as she got to the part about the Mark 13 torpedo.

Mitsuo snorted "I agree; the Liberion Mark 13 torpedo was well a piece of junk early on in the 2nd Neuroi War. I mean if I remember right, during the Battle for Midway only one of the things actually hit its target and exploded and the best part about it; is that it wasn't a torpedo bomber that dropped the Mark 13 that actually worked. It was actually a PBY-5 Catalina that dropped it." He said.

Harry nodded; "I know Liberion Torpedo planes would have been way more successful if we had to access to something like the Type 91 Torpedo, it also would have helped if the Torpedo Planes we had weren't so bad. However if I remember right Mitsuo, the Fusoan Torpedo Bombers had a lot more luck than the Liberions did." He said.

"Harry, you're correct in that respect. Fusoan Torpedo Bombers and Torpedo Bomber Witches had a hell of a lot more luck." Mitsuo replied as he began walking toward where the _Atlantis_ was docked.

The four veterans walked to the gangplank where they met Dr. Ballard; Samantha was actually amazed to be in the presence of the man that had discovered the wreck of the RMS _Titanic_ , KKK _Rheinland_ (Third _Bismarck_ -class Battleship built), RMS _Lusitania_ , and many different wrecks in Iron Bottom Sound, including lying on its side near Savo Island an _Annihilator_ -class Battlecruiser ( _Kronshtadt_ -class Battlecruiser).

 **XXXX**

Roughly two hours later, the _Atlantis_ had set sail for a spot 350 miles Northeast of Midway; toward a patch of ocean where both the _Kaga_ and the _Yorktown_ had gone down. Dr. Ballard was going over maps of the Ocean Floor with his team, to try and figure out, judging from the SONAR scans what is and what isn't an Aircraft Carrier; although they had very much determined where the _Kaga_ was, considering she had suffered an ammunition explosion which had ripped her in half.

Meanwhile down the hall and in a small onboard conference room. The veterans were sharing stories of what they went through during the Battle for Midway, describing the moments they had of terror, excitement, hope, the feeling of victory, and loss.

"I remember the waiting, after my flight had made its attack on the enemy fleet. God it just tore me up inside, hoping beyond hope that I would see another member from my flight return to Midway. However it became obvious after waiting for something like two hours, that my Avenger with myself and a good friend of mine Albert Ernest and one lone Witch were the only survivors. It just saddens my heart thinking about and brings me to tears." Harry said as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Harry, but you have to remember that back there sacrifice was not in vain. If anything it drew the enemy planes down to the deck and allowed the the rest of the strike package to get through to drop ordinance on the enemy carriers without fear of fighter attack. Also your bravery should be commended, attacking like you did without fighter cover. Hell, not even _I_ would have attacked that Carrier group without fighter cover." Mitsou said.

"Fuchida I have no idea how you do it. Yet somehow you almost always manage to cheer me up when you can tell that I am feeling down when we are together." Harry replied, Mitsou nodded in response.

 **XXXX**

 **XXXX**

 **XXXX**

 _Mid May 1942_

Captain Joseph Rochefort, commanding officer of station HYPO was pouring over intercepted and encrypted Neuroi messages. The messages kept making these references to objectives AF and AO. Now Rochefort and his staff had no idea what AO meant, but they were beginning to get an idea of what AF was, he believed that AF was Midway Atoll but he didn't have definitive proof.

 _Damn what can we do to finally cement what Objective AF? This is driving me nuts!_ Rochefort thought as he examined a recent Neuroi intercept. It was from an enemy scout plane saying it was passing near objective AF, after backtracking the course that scout could have taken the only real appreciable land mass was Midway, but Washington wasn't convinced.

He was certain that the next major Neuroi offensive was going to take place somewhere in the Central Pacific Ocean. The question was were in the Central Pacific were the Neuroi going to strike. The good news was he had managed to convince Admiral Chester Nimitz Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) that the Neuroi were going to strike somewhere in the Central Pacific. However OP-20-G or Office of Chief Of Naval Operations, 20th Division of the Office of Naval Communications, G Section / Communications Security (Holy mother of God! That is a mouth full!)in Washington D.C. with support from station CAST insisted that the Neuroi were going to strike elsewhere and they were thinking that the Neuroi were going to strike either the Aleutian Islands, or Port Moresby, or possibly even the West Coast of the United States.

To make matters worse, the OP-20-G(no I am putting the full name down again) had been restructured and now had Commander John R. Redman in charge, as if to further shoot the OP-20-G in the foot, he was untrained cryptanalysis. However they didn't even agree on when the Neuroi were going to strike. Rochefort was certain that the Neuroi were going to attack in either late May or early June. While Redman was convinced that the Neuroi were going to attack in mid-June. Admiral Ernest King Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and the current Chief of Naval Operations who was Admiral Chester Nimitz's superior had been convinced by the OP-20-G that the enemy was going to attack and likely invade the Aleutian Islands, Port Moresby, or even the West Coast of the United States.

"Commander, permission to speak freely, sir?" A voice said. Rochefort looked up, standing across from the table where he was standing was Captain Wilfred "Jasper" Holmes."Permission granted. What's on your mind Mr. Holmes?" Rochefort said yet he was a bit annoyed with Holmes for breaking his concentration. "Sir, I have an idea that might just work in convincing the Neuroi where they are going to strike." Wilfred said. _That_ got Rochefort's attention real damn fast. "What is it then Captain. You have gotten my attention." Rochefort said. "Sir, I was thinking how about we send a message to Midway, telling them to send a fake emergency message in the clear saying that the fresh-water condenser has broken down. Hopefully the Neuroi will take the bait and send a response." Wilfred said. Rochefort thought about what Wilfred had proposed, it was crazy but the thing was it would likely work, because like all life that Rochefort knew of, Neuroi infantry, tankers, pilots, etc. needed water to live. "Captain, that might work. I will ask Mr. Layton to take that idea to Admiral Nimitz tomorrow, hopefully Admiral Nimitz will approve the idea." Rochefort said.

 **XXXX**

The next morning Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton was getting settled down and ready to start a long day of work when the phone on his desk rang. He picked it up "Hello this is Lieutenant Commander Layton speaking." He said

"Hello Layton, it's me Rochefort." Joseph said.

"What can I do for you Joseph?" Edwin asked.

"Last night one of my subordinates approached me with an idea on how to figure out if Midway is Objective AF or not." Joseph said.

"Oh, what is it?" Edwin asked, wondering what it was.

"We have Midway send an unencrypted emergency warning message; saying that the Fresh Water Condenser has broken down. Hopefully the Neuroi will take the bait." Joseph said.

"Joseph, that might just work. I am going to take it up with Admiral Nimitz." Edwin replied.

"Thanks, I have to go, the Neuroi JN25 Code won't crack itself." Joseph said.

Edwin chuckled before saying "Alright, good bye Captain." Edwin then set his bag down and walked out of his office to go talk to Admiral Chester Nimitz about going through with this ruse.

 **XXXX**

Twenty minutes later Edwin was standing outside of Admiral Nimitz's office, he took a deep breath before knocking. "Come in." Admiral Nimitz said his voice muffled slightly by the door being closed. Edwin opened the door and walked in, and gave a salute which Nimitz returned. "Ah, what can I do for you, Lieutenant Commander?" He asked.

"Sir, Captain Joseph Rochefort called me about twenty-five minutes ago. He thinks he has an idea on how to determine what the Neuroi objective AF is." Layton replied.

"Okay, so what is this idea?" Nimitz asked intrigued.

"The idea sir is to be frank is ingenious. We have Midway Atoll send a fake unencrypted emergency message, stating that the fresh water condenser has broken down. With a little luck the Neuroi will take the bait and we will finally know for certain where the Neuroi are going to strike." Edwin replied.

"I have to admit, that is a brilliant plan. Alright, you have my approval. Go tell Mr. Rochefort he has the go-ahead." Nimitz said.

"Yessir!" Edwin replied before firing off a salute and going to the "Dungeon" as it was called.

 **XXXX**

Needless to say Joseph was happy to hear that Admiral Nimitz had given the plan for Midway to send a fake message saying that they had a Fresh water problem.

 **XXXX**

The next day, at Midway Atoll; Private Dombrowski was getting ready to begin a long day of work as a radioman. The officer in charge walked up to him. "Send this right away." He said gruffly, putting a piece of paper on his desk.

Private Dombrowski looked over the message once then raised an eyebrow. "Hey chief what's this? There ain't nothing wrong with our pure water condenser. I was just over there." He said.

The officer in charge got annoyed with him. " _Send it_ " he growled before walking away.

Dombrowski was now stupendously baffled but he began to send the message. "I think the goddamn _heat_ is getting to _everybody_ here!" He said to himself.

 **XXXX**

At a Neuroi listening post on Kwajalein Atoll; two Neuroi were stunned when they intercepted an unencrypted Radio message, from objective AF, stating that the pure water condenser had broken down.

"Quick! Send a message to theater command! They must know of this development and that a cargo ship carrying desalinization equipment must be in the invasion force!" The commander barked.

"Yessir!" A radio operator replied and quickly set to work, but the two Neuroi didn't know this. But they had just played right into the Liberion ruse.

 **XXXX**

Cheers broke out among the staff of Station HYPO as they picked up the radio message sent by the enemy listening post, and had deciphered it. It read; "Pure Water emergency at Objective AF, a cargo ship with new desalinization equipment must be a part of the invasion force."

Joseph for his part said "Hot damn it worked!" He then walked to the entrance of a hallway were Captain Matt Garth was standing.

The first thing Captain Garth noted was that Joseph was smoking a Cigar. He handed him the paper he glanced at it once. Then picked up the phone and dialed the number for Admiral Nimitz who was in his quarters on base. "They've taken the bait Admiral. No doubt about it, Objective AF is Midway Atoll." Captain Garth said.

Admiral Nimitz glanced at his alarm clock. "Alright Matt, meet me in my office at 0500 tomorrow." Nimitz said.

 **XXXX**

The battle plan was made in conjunction with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Liberions and Fusoan Imperial Navy would send their Carriers to a spot roughly 350 miles Northeast of Midway Atoll. This rendezvous point was aptly named "Point Luck" mainly because during the rest of May, the code-breakers had figured out what ships were going to strike Midway and the numbers were definitely stacked against them.

While PBY-5 Catalinas and Witches using PBY-5 Catalina Strikers were going to do Patrols going 700 miles out from Midway covering a 180 degree arc around Midway facing west. With H6K4 "Mavis" Flying Boats and Witches with H6K4 "Mavis" Flying Boat Strikers flying 1,500 miles out from Midway and covering the most likely approach routes, the same went for Witches, no matter the Striker Unit they were using. (No shit the H6K4 could do this no problem, with a range of over 4,000 miles it was capable of doing 24-hour patrols). The search planes were going to go by the call signs "Strawberry" for the Liberions and "Cherry Blossom" for the Fusoans.

 **XXXX**

The sea search began on June 1st, 1942. With Catalinas and "Mavis" Flying Boats covering a huge expanse of sea.

The PBY-5 Catalina known as "Strawberry 9" was lumbering through the sky at an altitude of 10,000 feet and was roughly 500 miles out from Midway. The pilot was busy scanning the horizon nearby was a Witch using Catalina Strikers was doing the same. The co-pilot of "Strawberry 9" was eating Saltine Crackers and was already halfway done with one of the bags made of wax paper that contained probably forty or forty-five of the things. The pilot looked at his co-pilot incredulously "Jesus Christ, how many of those things are you going to eat?" He asked. Then the radio man poked his head up into the cockpit and took a Saltine Cracker. The pilot of the Catalina pushed his head back down.

 **XXXX**

Several hundred miles away, a H6K4 was nearly 750 miles away from Midway, its Call sign was "Cherry Blossom 2" inside the flying boat, the radioman/navigator/medic was tending to "Cherry Blossom 7" a witch who used H6K4 Strikers, she had Strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes, and was wearing the top part of a Imperial Japanese Navy Flying Uniform, she was roughly 5 feet in height and was 13 years old. She had suffered a run in, with an enemy twin-engined heavy fighter; a Zoster as the Karlslandians called them. She had managed to shoot it down, but had suffered a few grazing hits and a serious hit in her hip, one of her Striker Units had been turned into Swiss Cheese. Thus she had made a rendezvous with "Cherry Blossom 2".

"How is she doing doc?" The pilot of "Cherry Blossom 2" Flying Officer Chihaya Gunzo asked.

"She's doing okay, I have to say she is very lucky to have encountered us, she wouldn't have made it back to Midway in the shape she is in. Still, how the hell did she manage to shoot down that enemy "Saber" Heavy Fighter?" The medic asked.

"Ask her! How the hell do you expect me to know?" Gunzo retorted.

The medic for his part fired off a retort in, was that _Karlslandian_ , before turning his attention to the witch. "First what is your name? My name is Ezra Yoshiki." He asked.

"My name is Makie Osakabe. I am just a Sargent. You know, I specialize in long range patrols. Thing is, I never wanted to be Patrol Bomber Witch; I wanted to be at the very least a dive bomber witch." The Witch now known as Makie said.

"Well, Makie you are one lucky girl, I can tell you that. You only suffered grazing injuries and a pretty nasty hit in the hip, however one of your striker units got thrashed it is going to need a total rebuild. The enemy bolt that hit you in the hip, while it didn't hit anything vital, you're lucky it didn't decimate your entire hip." Ezra said

"Damnit, so I am on the bench then, eh." Makie said.

"Yes, you could say that." Ezra replied.

 **XXXX**

They searched for two days, then on June 3rd, 1942 at 0900 hours, they found something.

 **Strawberry 3**

The Witch with the Callsign "Strawberry 3" was Ensign Jacqueline Reid was roughly 580 miles west-southwest of Midway when she spotted something. The wakes of ships. Jacqueline had black hair and brown eyes, was roughly 5 feet 2 inches tall and was 16 years old. Her magic ability is Area Scan and her familiar is a golden labrador.

"Strawberry 3 to Noah's Ark. Main Body sighted!"

However Jacqueline decided to at great risk to herself to continue orbiting the enemy formation and sent more information and details; which was relayed to headquarters at Pearl.

Headquarters came to the conclusion that this was not the main body but still a worthwhile target to attack.

 **XXXX**

By 1230 hours, nine B-17 Flying Fortresses, three B-17 Bomber Witches, four G4M1 "Betty" Bombers, and a single G4M1 "Betty" Bomber Witch, took off. The B-17s were carrying four 1,000 pound bombs each and the B-17 Witches were carrying eight 1,000 pound bombs four per striker. The "Betty" Bombers were carrying four 550lb bombs, and the lone Witch with the "Betty" Bomber Strikers was carrying eight 550 pound bombs, four per striker unit.

The strike force was in the air for three hours before they discovered the enemy Invasion force at 1530 hours and attacked it.

 **XXXX**

"Here we go boys! Mind the flak and keep an eye out for enemy fighters! Because we're going in!" The commander of the strike package said as explosions of red began to dot the sky, in was the flak coming up to meet them, streams of red energy bolts streaked upward as well.

In response there was of chorus of "Roger" and "Hai".

The bombers and witches pressed the attack. The AA fire coming up from the enemy fleet was heavy. "Whoa! Heavy Flak!" A B-17 witch barked as she was forced to put her shield up to prevent her from being well shredded by a flak burst.

The Bombers picked out individual targets and dropped their bombs from altitudes of roughly 27,000 feet. While it was hard to tell if they hit anything or not. The bombers and the bomber witches would go on to claim ten hits, on eight separate ships. In all actuality they had actually scored one hit. A single 1,000 pound bomb from one of the bomber witches had crashed into one of the _Wraith_ -class Light Cruisers, plunging way down into the ship before exploding. The bomb destroyed both of the turbines,heavily damaged the diesel engines, and opened seams everywhere, the light cruiser came to a groaning halt, and dead in the water.

Despite the heavy anti-aircraft fire that came racing up from the enemy ships, they didn't damage or destroy any of the Attacking planes. The Liberion and Fusoan Navies not wanting to be left out, tasked four PBY Catalinas, two PBY Catalina Witches, and two H6K4 Flying Boats and two H6K4 Witches to hit the enemy force at night.

 **XXXX**

The bombers and bomber witches returned to Midway sometime later with no damage. Later that night at roughly 2100 hours, four PBY Catalinas, two Witches with PBY Catalina Strikers, two H6K4 Flying Boats, and two Witches with H6K4 Strikers took off to launch a torpedo attack on the enemy task force, which had been determined to be the enemy invasion force. Each PBY was carrying a single Mark 13 Mod 1 Aerial Torpedo, each Liberion witch was carrying two Mark 13 Mod 1 Aerial Torpedoes, while H6K4 was carrying two Type 91rev3 Aerial Torpedoes, and both Fusoan Witches were carrying four Type 91 Rev3 Aerial Torpedoes.

The Liberions equipped all of the Seaplanes with a borrowed Britannian Anti-Surface Vessel RADAR, launched to go out, at night, find, and attack the enemy fleet. Then fly back to Midway Island with only the crudest of navigational instruments, all while doing it at night over a distance of 500 miles. The four brave Liberion Catalina pilots were Ensign Allan Rothenberg, Lt. William Richards he was also the XO, Lt. jg. Douglas Davis, and Ensign Gaylord Propst, the two Liberion Witches were Ensigns Roberta Frost and Abigail Mayweather, the two H6K4 "Mavis" Flying Boat Pilots were Flying Officer Jinsabru Kayaba and Sargent Shinkawa Kurokawa, and the two Fusoan Witches were Flying Officers Yumi Ishiyama and Miko Tanaka. The callsigns for this attack group was "Black Cat".

 **XXXX**

The Planes and Witches were in the air for several hours before they began to close in with the enemy fleet having found it using RADAR. Miko Tanaka was getting nervous, this was her first action and it was a night torpedo attack! Miko was a short girl, at roughly 4 feet 9 inches, she had long flowing Auburn hair and blue eyes; she was wearing a standard Imperial Fusoan Navy Airman Uniform, her magic ability however is Three-Dimensional Understanding, and her familiar is that of a Dalmatian. However the Liberion Witches on this mission were an enigma to Miko, as both were pretty recluse and only spoke when spoken too.

"Heads up everyone, the enemy according to the RADAR is directly ahead of us, pick out your targets and engage at will. Happy Hunting everybody. Also Witches if you think you won't be able to make it back to Midway, try and board one of the Flying Boats." The XO of the mission Lt. William Richards said.

A chorus of replies came over the radio. The formation split apart and picked out individual targets. Miko swung in, and went for the silhouette of a ship, she could tell it was very because it was blocking out the stars behind it. Judging by the Superstructure she was going after one of the two _Grunt_ -class Light Aircraft Carriers, she used her magic ability to confirm this, she armed her torpedoes and made her run. She swung in low, being at a scant 33 feet above the water and traveling at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. She waited until she got 678 yards away from the target and released all four of her torpedoes. She wanted to sink this bastard. The four Type 91 Rev 3 torpedoes entered the water after traveling for 130 yards at a speed of 190 miles per hour, at an entry angle of 9.4 degrees; total air travel time 1.4 seconds, she pulled up and chopped power she went screaming over the deck of the Carrier and climbed away. Yet the Aircraft Carrier was still trying to figure out what had just buzzed them and thus no one was looking to the portside. After 21 seconds the four Type 91 revision 3 Aerial Torpedoes impaled the enemy Carrier, one torpedo hit aft of the engine room right in a magazine, and caused an said magazine to explode. A monstrous conflagration engulfed the ship, flames roared skyward shooting 500 feet into the air, while the stern was violently amputated from the rest of the ship, shrapnel had gone flying in all directions. The ship was obviously doomed, however the dramatic death of the _Grunt_ -class Light Aircraft Carrier did not go unnoticed. For suddenly the sky was light up as the Neuroi ships began to fill the sky with AA fire.

"Scratch one Flattop! Holy Mother of God that was a massive explosion!" Miko barked into the radio. "Beautiful Black Cat 10! I saw that explosion from here! Scratch one _Grunt_ -class Aircraft Carrier!" Lt. Richards said.

"Thank you Black Cat Leader! Well I am going to be loitering at a little higher altitude, just to wait for the rest of you guys to drop your fish!" Miko said as she climbed away.

"Roger Black Cat 10! Hell, tomorrow I will take you out to lunch my treat for bagging that Carrier." Lt. Richards replied.

Suddenly another ball of flame erupted to life several miles away, then another voice crackled over the radio. "Black Cat Four to Black Cat Leader! I got a hit Lt. Williams!" Ensign Graylord said, with gusto.

Two more fireballs erupted to life elsewhere in the fleet. "Black Cat 7 to Black Cat Leader! I just put a torpedo into a pair of transports!" Flying Officer Kayaba exulted as he pulled up.

"Excellent work both of you! This is turning into a turkey shoot!" Lt. Richards said.

The sky was seemingly being cut into intricate geometries by the enemy AA fire, and searchlights began to flick on and scan the skies. Suddenly fire exploded into life in the air. "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! THIS IS BLACK CAT 8! I am hit! I can't maintain altitude! I am sorry fellas, I am not coming back from this one!" Sergeant Kurokawa yelled, the distinct crash of enemy AA fire finding its mark audible in the background. Miko used her magic ability to find "Black Cat 8" she then tracked its movement as Kurokawa guided his crippled Flying Boat with a very steady hand, somehow keeping the flaming Flying Boat on a relatively straight course, right into a _Slayer_ -class Heavy Cruiser, a large explosion blossomed to life, using her magic ability Miko saw that the burning fuel and oil had splashed all across the deck, forward main gun turrets, and several open AA gun emplacements. Burning debris from the H6K4 was scattered everywhere across the front of the ship. Suddenly a large secondary explosion convulsed the ship as one of the torpedoes cooked off from the fire, which amputated the bow of the ship.

 **XXXX**

Yumi cursed as she was forced to pull up and abort her torpedo run due to heavy AA fire; she was 5 feet 5 inches tall yet she is 16 Years Old. Her magic ability is Ballistic Lock-on and her familiar is that of a Dove. She took a brief look behind her, and saw that Abigail Mayweather was coming in, two objects detached, her torpedoes. As she watched both entered the water, but saw only one bubble trail, the other had failed to run.

She was beginning to swing out to go to a point she had determined would suit her best so she could come around and hit that Light Cruiser. Suddenly she heard a thunderous boom, she looked at the Light Cruiser just in time to see a towering column of spray fall back in on itself. Looks like another Mark 13 Mod 1 had actually worked; plus Yumi knew just how bad the Mark 13 Mod 1 Aerial Torpedo was, having two actually work on the same day it was something to write home about.

She got to the point she needed to be at and swung around, she armed two of her torpedoes and came in; when she got to the release put she dropped them. Both torpedoes ran hot, straight, and normal. Yumi grinned wickedly as two torpedoes impacted the Light Cruiser and snapped it in half, the ship then sank like a stone going _five_ miles straight down. "One enemy light cruiser sunk!" Yumi barked.

"Hot diggity damn! That is what this night is turning into!" Lt. Richards exalted.

As if to punctuate the point, another bright orange fireball erupted among the enemy fleet, this one was pretty large. "Hell yeah! Black Cat 7 here! I just put my last two torpedoes into a Heavy Cruiser. I think I caused a magazine detonation, for everything aft of main gun turret three is gone! She ain't going anywhere! Let's get the fuck out of here!" Kayaba barked.

"Alright boys and girls! I think we have earned our pay tonight! Let's just get the hell out of here before the enemy send Night Fighters up to ruin our day!" Lt. Richards ordered.

Then Yumi spotted something, a _Hunter_ -class ASW destroyer. The Anti-Aircraft Capability wasn't the best on those things. So she went after it. Sadly a lookout must have spotted her and alerted the captain. For suddenly the thing light up like crazy as the AA opened fire. Flak began exploding in front of her, explosions of red with streaks flying away from the explosion sight, each one of those was a storm of shrapnel. Then her radio crackled. "Black Cat 5 to Black Cat 10 pull out! Pull out! No way in hell you can get through. Pull out!" Roberta yelled, trying to order her to pull out. However Yumi, did not want to be the one witch to come back with a little ordinance on her Strikers.

She reached her release point, "Torpedoes away! Torpedoes away!" She cried as she pulled up sharply...right into the path of a burst of what was later determined to be Neuroi bolts that did damage similar to that of a 37mm API cannon round, they ripped right into her. Lt. Richards looked down when he heard Yumi scream, he looked down and let out a wild stream of profanity. One of her Striker units was in flames, the other was mangled beyond belief. Worst of all, there was a smoking hole in her midsection. Richards watched as Yumi's ruined striker units stalled and she then tumbled into the water with a heavy crash. The _Hunter_ -class destroyer managed to dodge both torpedoes, then went to ahead flank and moved quickly to where Yumi had crashed.

"The fucking bastards are going to capture her! Grr! If I had any type of ordy left I would drop it on that destroyer!" Douglas growled, having to fight every urge to do something insanely rash and stupid.

"All we can do Doug, is just pray for her survival. I hope they don't do anything inhumane to her. For if they do I will rip all of those fuckers a new one." Kayaba snarled.

"Come on Black Cats let's go home. When we get back to base, I will buy us all drinks tomorrow afternoon, god knows we need it. We will hold a toast to our fallen comrades." Richards said.

So, the first ride of the "Black Cats" flew back toward Midway, relying on instructions from Miko to find there way back home. It took roughly three hours to get back to Midway. Lt. Richards had the Witches land first since they were close as dammit to exhausted. He then had Black Cat 7 land, followed by Black Cats 2, 3, and 4. Lt. Richards's PBY-5 Catalina was the last one to land.

 **XXXX**

Around the time that the "Black Cats" were beginning to turn for Midway. The Ysterplaat Imperial Republic Ship (YIRS) _Eshfalaka_ or translated to English the _High Snow Dragon_ , a _Mazark_ -class Anti-submarine Destroyer the 32nd ship of her class, raced to the scene where that "Witch" slammed into the water. "Come on for fuck sakes you assholes! Get her the fuck out of the water and to the onboard hospital! Move it you scumbags!" The chief boatswain mate bellowed at the AA gun crews and deck hands who were scrambling to get a cargo net over the side.

"Shit! I think she might have been hit! I don't see her in the water!" An AA gunner yelled. "Gah! You morons! I am going for a swim! You better get that fucking cargo net ready!" The boatswain mate snarled as he quickly shed his shirt and then leaped over the side and began to swim down rapidly toward her. It didn't take him long to find her a long thin trail of red blood led him right to her. He grimaced when she saw the extent of her wounds, a 37mm beam right through the mid-section. The doctors were going to have their work cut-out for them, at least the intense heat of the beam had cauterized the wound, else she might already be dead. Nevertheless, he grabbed hold of her arm, and using powerful strokes of his legs hauled himself and his cargo back to the surface. He quickly felt for a pulse, and was amazed to find that it was still there, very weak and thready but there. Somehow she had survived.

After the Chief Boatswain's mate got back to where his ship was, he now had a bigger problem, how the fuck was he going get back to his beloved deck? His answer came to landing close by. A friendly scout plane. "Get on you idiot." The pilot growled, the boatswain mate did so. The plane then puttered over to the _Eshfalaka_ where a crane picked the plane up and hoisted it to the catapult. It was then put back into its hangar.

"Get her to the hospital now!" The Boatswain mate bellowed at the two orderlies who had a stretcher. They nodded and quickly carried the thing away. "Goddamn when did my life get so strange?" The Boatswain mate groused to himself as he went to his quarters to get changed.

 **XXXX**

The "Black Cat" Squadron would go on to claim sinking a light cruiser and a light carrier, mortally wounding a pair of heavy cruisers, sinking an oiler, and two transport ships. In reality the damage done to the enemy fleet wasn't as serious as they thought they had done. They had sunk a light cruiser and a light carrier, mortally wounded a pair of heavy cruisers, seriously damaged a oiler, and although the had scored direct hits on two enemy troop ships the torpedoes had impacted the torpedo bulges and thus had done no damage.

Yet the members of the "Black Cats" as they were beginning to call themselves. Mourned the loss of two friends. One was KIA, and the other one was either KIA or a POW. So the military listed her as MIA.

 **XXXX**

The search continued on, the day was June 4th, 1942. The search planes and witches took off in the early morning hours to begin a long and boring day of Sea Search. Little did they know but today was going to be anything but long and boring.

 **XXXX**

The time was 0430 hours, and the Neuroi started launching planes for an airstrike on Midway itself. The eight Neuroi Carriers had six-hundred and ten carrier based aircraft at their disposal. The plan was to have both of the Fleet Carriers to launch an Alpha Strike at Midway. (An Alpha Strike is when an Aircraft Carrier throws every single available combat aircraft at a target). While two of the Supercarriers would hold their airwings in reserve with their aircraft armed with demolition bombs ready to launch aircraft in case a 2nd strike was needed against Midway, while three of the supercarriers would have their aircraft prepared with Armor-Piercing Bombs and Torpedoes to deal with the allied strike force, and the last Supercarrier was going to keep its air wing in reserve and have its fighters doing a CAP or Combat Air Patrol. With the Neuroi plan in place, the two Fleet Carriers each launched thirty-seven fighters, thirty dive bombers, and eighteen torpedo planes.

The CAP went up first, then the strike package was launched. Once the Strike Package formed up they then headed for Midway, a grand total of 170 planes were going to fall on the Atoll with the force of a Typhoon.

 **XXXX**

 ***BGM Midway OST Strawberry 5***

The PBY-5 Catalina with the callsign "Strawberry 5" was flown by Lt. Howard Ady, with his co-pilot Airman First Class Donald Carter. The Catalina came out of a cloud bank, Howard was using the binoculars to sweep the ocean when he spotted something on the water. They were the wakes of ships. "Don! Do you see what I see down there?" Howard said as he pointed out where he saw the wakes and handed the binoculars to Donald. Donald took one good look, lowered the Binoculars and said "It is the whole damn Neuroi Navy!" He exclaimed.

Then one of the waist gunners spoke up. "Boss! We got Fangs coming in on us!" He barked.

"Shit we got to get into the clouds!" Howard snarled as he firewalled the engines and took the PBY into the cloud deck.

 ***BGM Ends***

Nearly Twenty five minutes later, "Strawberry 5" exited the clouds to take a peek and spotted two enemy carriers and a battleship. "Sparks! I have my eyes on two enemy Carriers and a Battleship! Heading 320 degrees! Distance 180 miles! Send it!" Howard barked. The time was 0534 hours.

 **XXXX**

At Midway, the air crews sprang into action, running to their planes to prep them, expecting to get orders to take-off into the wild blue yonder to find and attack the enemy carrier fleet. However something was going to happen that would change all of that.

 **XXXX**

"Strawberry 12" was a PBY-5 Catalina just like "Strawberry 5" this one was piloted by Lt. William Chase. Suddenly one of the gunners yelled. "Bandits! Bandits! Hundreds of them!" William frantically looked around then set eyes on roughly his 5 o'clock. "Jesus" he said emphasizing the word as he laid eyes on the incoming strike package headed for Midway. "Sparks! Send a warning to Midway right damn now! They have a metric fuckton of company coming and it is not friendly!" He barked. "Yessir!" The radioman replied. The time was 0544 hours.

 **XXXX**

When Midway got the message, there was no callsign so they had no idea what plane or witch it had come from. But what it said, was good enough for them to know what was coming. "Many planes headed Midway". With that simple message turned Midway into a beehive of activity to launch all bombers and fighters. The last thing that was needed was to get caught flat-footed with all the bombers and fighters on the ground.

 **XXXX**

At a range of 90 miles the RADAR station on Midway detected the incoming enemy strike package. The real battle begins now.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Alright! There is chapter one of my Strike Witches: Battle of Midway fic. Like I said, I am going for historical accuracy but there will be subtle differences consider this as the general disclaimer for this story.**


	3. First Strikes!

**A/N: Here we go! Chapter Two of my Strike Witches Battle for Midway Fan Fic. Like I said, expect some historical inaccuracies because well nobody is perfect. It is a fact of life. Another thing to note, there are going to be a metric ton and a half of deaths in this story, some of them are a little on the graphic side.**

 **Also forgot to mention this, but both the Admiral Yamamoto and Nimitz agreed, that in order to not have all of the Fusoan eggs(Aircraft Carriers) to all be in basket. It was decided that the IFN** _ **Soryu**_ **and IFN** _ **Hiryu**_ **would sail with Task Force 16. While the IFN** _ **Akagi**_ **would have her own escort group composed of the ships that had escorted the** _ **Zuikaku**_ **and** _ **Shokaku**_ **at Coral Sea, she would also be a in a separate task force which was called Task Force 18. Lastly IFN** _ **Kaga**_ **would sail with the Task Force 17. With the Fusoan and Liberion carriers set up like this, that is how it was determined. Another thing of note, is that Task Force 16 since it had the most Aircraft Carriers, with four, it was determined that a battleship should be in the escort screen, in light of this IFN** _ **Haruna**_ **was chosen for the job. Task Force 17 was given the IFN** _ **Kirishima**_ **to provide escort. Task Forces 16 and 18 sailed at the same time, while Task Force 17 sailed forty-eight hours later.**

 **Anyway, I think that I should begin to get into the specs of the Neuroi Planes. That way you know what the Allies are going to be facing. Which means the specifications of the Neuroi planes are inbound, of the ones we are about to see in action. Also note you will only hear Allied Code Names in radio chatter.**

 **La-11N Allied Code Name "Fang"**

 **Type: Air Superiority Fighter**

 **Crew: 1 (?)**

 **Length: 28 ft 3 in**

 **Wingspan: 32 feet 2 inches**

 **Height: 11 Feet 5 inches**

 **Powerplant: One Radial Engine, power output unknown**

 **Propellor: One three bladed type**

 **Top speed: 422 miles per hour (est)**

 **Cruise speed: unknown guessed to be low 300s**

 **Range: Unknown**

 **Service ceiling: 33,000 feet (est)**

 **Armament: Two Neuroi bolt emitters synced to fire through the propellor arc does damage similar to a 23mm API round and four wing mounted Neuroi rapid fire bolt emitters that do damage similar to that of 12..7x108mm Machine gun round**

 **Saab 17N Allied Code Name "Talon"**

 **Type: Dive Bomber**

 **Crew: 2 (?)**

 **Length: 32 feet 10 inches**

 **Wingspan: 44 feet 11 inches**

 **Height: 14 feet 10 inches**

 **Powerplant: One Radial Engine producing an unknown amount of power**

 **Propellor: One Three Bladed Type**

 **Top Speed: 275 Miles Per Hour**

 **Cruising Speed: unknown**

 **Range: Unknown**

 **Service ceiling: est 32,000 feet**

 **Armament: Two wing mounted Neuroi rapid fire bolt emitters in the wings does damage similar to that of a 8mm rifle round and one flexible gun type Neuroi rapid fire bolt emitter does damage similar to a 8mm machine gun**

 **Can carry bombs estimated bomb load 1,550 pounds.**

 **Fairey Spearfish Allied Code Name "Eradicator"**

 **Type: Torpedo Bomber/Level Bomber**

 **Crew: 2 (?)**

 **Length: 44 feet 7 inches**

 **Wingspan: 60 feet 3 inches**

 **Height: 13 feet 6 inches**

 **Powerplant: One Radial Engine producing unknown amount of power**

 **Propellor: One Five-Bladed Type**

 **Top speed: 290 miles per hour (est)**

 **Cruise speed: very low 200s or high 100s**

 **Service ceiling: est at 27,000 feet**

 **Range: unknown**

 **Armament: two wing mounted Neuroi rapid-fire bolt emitters and in a rear turret two gun like Neuroi rapid-fire bolt emitters; both do damage similar to that of a 12.7x108mm round.**

 **Bombs: 1 Torpedo or roughly 2,000lbs of bombs**

 **Right sorry for that wall of text but it is needed. Now let's get this show rolling!**

 **XXXX**

 _June 4_ _th_ _, 1942_

 _0530 Hours_

 ***BGM: Robotech Soundtrack: Battlestations***

The commander at Midway Island ordered all fighters and fighter witches to scramble into the air. The Fusoans launched first sending twenty-five Ki-43-I Mark 1C "Oscar" Fighters, six Ki-44-I Hei "Tojo" Fighters, fifteen fighter witches equipped with Ki-43-I Mark 1C "Oscar" Striker Units, and two fighter witches equipped with Ki-44-I Hei "Tojo" Striker Units, they quickly clawed for altitude to be able to succeed in making the intercept against the incoming Neuroi Strike Package.

Then the Liberions launched, VMF-221 the "Fighting Falcons" clawed skyward. This unit was a Marine Fighting Squadron and was composed of twenty-one Brewster F2A-3 Buffalos, seven F4F-3A Wildcat Fighters, eighteen fighter witches flying F2A-3 Striker Units, and four fighter witches flying F4F-3A Wildcat Striker Units. VMF-221 had three problems, first the fighters and striker units were worn out "Hand me downs" from the Navy, second more than half of the squadron were rookies fresh from flight training stateside, and third two Wildcats had been on patrol when the alert had gone out and thus had to return to Midway to refuel. These three factors combined with the fact that Neuroi strike package had at least 150 planes, it was a disaster waiting to happen. The unit itself was commanded by a young witch by the name Lt. Flora "Red" Parks.

Lt. Flora "Red" Parks was 14 year old Witch from Salisbury, Missouri. She had blonde hair and brown eyes. Her familiar is a Lioness of all things, and her magic ability is Area Scan, her weapon was an .30 caliber A/N M2 Machine Gun. In fact the majority of her the witches in her squadron carried the .30 caliber A/N M2, although a few carried M2 Brownings however not many maybe five total carried the "Ma Deuce". Major Parks had already formed a plan with the rest of her flight leaders as well as the Fusoan Fighter flight leaders and now they implemented it. The group of 98 Liberion and Fusoan fighter planes and witches broke off into two groups of 49, so that way if the Neuroi attacked from multiple directions there would be one group ready to intercept.

However the commanders of both sections Captains Dania J. Hennessy and Kirk Armistead respectively. Were informed by RADAR, that the Neuroi were at 11,000 feet and closing fast in one large group, were ordered to support Major Parks.

Now with nearly 96 fighters and fighter witches flying as one force, the group climbed to an altitude of 14,000 feet. The incoming enemy strike force was escorted by seventy-four highly lethal fighters, that with one burst shred a Fusoan fighter plane in an instant, and with a couple of bursts rip a Liberion fighter apart.

As the clock hit 0614, Captain John F. Carey spotted the enemy, a large formation of Eradicator level bombers. He was leading a formation of three Wildcats and two witches flying Wildcat Striker Units. He keyed the radio and barked "Tally ho! Hawks at angels twelve supported by fighters!" Carey's section of planes then took advantage of the fact that the "Fang" fighters were trailing above and behind the "Eradicators".

 ***Current BGM ends for the moment***

 ***New BGM starts Robotech OST: Alien Attack!***

He put his plane into a steep dive to pick up speed, and got one of the lumbering bombers in his gunsight. He squeezed the trigger, and the four M2 Browning .50 caliber machine guns roared to life. The rounds impacted around the engine and cockpit, flames exploded to life and the plane tumbled from formation. Carey then put his Wildcat into a sharp left turn to avoid the "Fangs" but got caught by burst from the defensive guns on one of the Eradicators, it racked his Wildcat with fire, several bolts punched through the armor and screamed through the cockpit before going flying out the other side, that shattered both of his legs.

One of Carey's wingmen 2nd Lieutenant Clayton M. Canfield tore after his flight led, and lined up a bomber of his and gave it a good long burst. The enemy bomber exploded as the fuel tanks caught fire. Seconds after that, the "Fangs" were all over them. Canfield cursed, he jinked right and then left, running out of options he dove into a cloud and broke contact from the enemy fighters. He later broke out of the cloud and escorted Carey back to Midway.

Meanwhile Captain Marion E. Carl had "Fang" problems. He had one locked solidly on his ass, trying its hardest to punch his ticket, with two other "Fangs" behind that one jockeying for a shot on him. At the same time Carl was in the process of trying to chase down another "Fang", he was beginning to draw a bead on it. He finally saw his chance and pulled the trigger, the guns roared and tracers streaked through the sky, the "Fang" shuddered, before thick smoke began to billow from the enemy plane. Suddenly his plane shuddered and it sounded like gravel had been thrown at his plane. He sent his plane into an evasive barrel roll, which caused all three enemy planes chasing him to overshoot. He got one square in his gunsight and he fired, and nothing happened. For some reason his guns wouldn't respond, he quickly pulled up and climbed into the clouds where he spent the rest of the battle.

Meanwhile Flying Officers 1st class Claria Reed and Sarah Beckett engaged the enemy fighters. However they were both quickly forced on the defensive. However the cavalry arrived as the rest of the defenders engaged the enemy. The fight quickly turned sour.

"GAH! This is Rainbow eight! I am hit! I am hit! I can't hold her I am going down!" The pilot of Rainbow eight cried as his plane began to plunge toward the water, flames billowing from the engine.

"Splash one!" A Fusoan witch yelled, as she sent a dive bomber down in flames.

"Help! Help! Help! I have four of them on me! For fucking fuck sakes somebody help me!" A liberion witch with the callsign Rainbow four shrieked as she jinked left, right, up, and down to try and avoid enemy fire coming from two "Fangs" that were on her ass.

 ***BGM ends for a moment***

 **XXXX**

 ***BGM starts: Robotech OST: Battle Stations at roughly the 52 second mark***

While all of this chaos was going on, the Six TBF-1 Torpedo Planes, three torpedo Bomber Witches with TBF-1 Striker Units of VT-8 (Midway detachment)took off to engage the enemy, the four B-26 Marauders and two witches with B-26 Striker Units, two of the B-26s and one of the Witches was from the 69th bomb squadron/39th bomb group while the other two B-26s and the other witch was from the 18th Recon Squadron/22nd Bomb Group took off to attack the hostile fleet, next sixteen SBD-2s and twenty-five witches equipped with SBD-2 Striker Units led by Major Lofton Henderson of VMSB-241 took-off, they were followed by executive officer Major Benjamin White Norris with the rest of VMSB-241s planes and witches; eleven Vindicator Dive Bombers and eight witches with Vindicator Dive Bomber Striker Units took off to engage the enemy. Meanwhile another force of friendly aircraft, this time fifteen B-17s, six Witches with B-17 Striker Units, five G4M1 "Betty" Bombers, and four G4M1 "Betty" Bomber Witches who were under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Walter Sweeny Jr. were retasked to bomb the enemy carrier fleet.

The five groups of planes headed towards the enemy carrier fleet separately not as one large strike package; to make it even worse, they had no fighter escort. What was going to ensue was not going to be pretty.

 ***BGM Ends***

 **XXXX**

 ***BGM: Alien Attack Resumes***

As the bombers, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers were launching to attack the enemy fleet, things were going horribly wrong for the brave and valiant defenders of Midway particularly for the Liberions, eight F2A-3s had already been swatted out of the sky already and that number was still increasing, as had two Ki-43s, a pair of Wildcats, as well four Liberion Witches using F2A-3 Striker Units, and one Liberion Witch using F4F-3A Wildcat Striker Units.

A USMC pilot screamed, as the canopy to his Buffalo exploded followed in short order by the instrument panel, fire roared into life in the cockpit and burned the Liberion Marine to death inside. The Buffalo rolled inverted and plunged toward the ocean. The Liberions were beginning to lose planes and now Witches left, right, and center as the crack Neuroi pilots used their aircraft superior agility and firepower to dominate the pilots of VMF-221. As such the valiant defenders were slowly pushed back til they were over Midway itself.

The AA gunners fired into the mess of enemy planes, trying not to hit friendlies but with all the hellish action that was going on, it would eventually prove impossible not too.

It was also at this point that Major Parks met her maker. She had just flamed an enemy fighter, making that her third confirmed kill of the day, two bombers and a fighter. Suddenly her Magic Ability alerted her to something coming at her from her left. She looked and her heart sank, it was a pair of enemy fighters, she swung in toward them which threw off their aim, bright red Neuroi bolts went blazing past her, she lined up her .30 caliber A/N M2 on one of the enemy planes and fired, tracers reached out and impacted the enemy plane the engine caught fire and it rolled inverted and out of sight. "Score another one for Parks! You go girl!" A Fusoan Witch, Saki Yoshida said with a whoop.

The other fighter opened up forcing Parks to put up her shield, the nice long burst splashed across the shield, and forced the enemy fighter to turn away, as Parks sent a burst at the enemy, scoring several hits for sure. She was about to go after it lowering her shield as she did so, when suddenly she caught a glint out of the corner of her eye. Moments later, pain like she had never felt before exploded in life, she barely had the chance to scream before she was killed by a diving enemy plane.

Rainbow six, piloted by 2nd Lt. Charles S. Hughes saw this happen. "FUCK! Rainbow Leader is down!" He snarled, he then spotted the enemy plane responsible do a small victory roll as it pulled up and away. Charles didn't know this, but as he swung his F2A-3 Buffalo in to engage the "Fang" responsible, he was about to enter the dogfight of his life with a crack triple enemy ace and possibly the best Fighter Pilot over skies of Midway that day. However 2nd Lt. Charles was determined as hell to avenge not only his squadron leader but a very close friend as well. "COME BACK HERE YOU ROTTEN NEUROI S.O.B.!" He bellowed as he firewalled the engine on his Buffalo and dove on the enemy plane, which was looking for another victim. Which found him instead. The guns on Hughes's Buffalo roared as he gave a quick burst, several rounds connected with the enemy plane. The pilot instantly snapped rolled to the left, and Hughes followed. The most intense aerial duel of the Battle for Midway was on.

Both planes cut an intricate dance through the skies above Midway atoll. The Neuroi pilot was an amazing pilot; then to everyone's amazement, he threw his plane into an out of control spin for an instant and Hughes overshot, meanwhile the pilot instantly recovered and began to pursue Hughes. He did almost every trick he knew, and occasionally would reverse the tables for a few moments before the enemy would be right on his six, this continued on for at least twelve minutes; twelve minutes of high-g maneuvers, dizzying turns, and stomach-churning reversals. Hughes thought back to what Major Parks had told him just before this mission.

"Now boys and girls remember this, if an enemy gets on your tail and you can't shake him via a split-S, Immelman turn, or Hammerhead turn. Get creative, for example, send your plane into a skid by if you are a regular pilot, hitting one rudder pedal and holding the stick absolutely still, whereas if you are a Witch chop power in one of your striker units. Also Witches remember you have way better agility than regular Buffalos and Wildcats. Use that to your advantage. Outsmart the bastards." She had said.

So Hughes got creative, he put the plane into a tight left turn. When the enemy plane turned with him with ease, he counted in his head to three, he then suddenly straightened out, and went into an aerial skid, in effect he is slamming on his brakes. The move caught the ace completely off guard as it was a very rare maneuver that was used in air combat, and thus as the enemy pilot tried to copy the maneuver, but wound up fishtailing it trying to bleed enough speed to stay on the Buffalo's six, however it was for naught, as the Neuroi La-11N slid out in front of Hughes's F2A-3 Buffalo, Hughes pulled the trigger, with enemy plane effectively filling windscreen, it was impossible to miss. The powerful 12.7x99mm rounds ripped the enemy plane apart, smoke and flames erupted from the fuel tanks and engine. The plane rolled away and plunged into the bay. "Splash one! Splash one!" Hughes said as he began to pant.

"Well hot damn! Rainbow Six, you. You are one tenacious Sonofabitch, you were locked in that duel for god knows how long, nice kill!" A Fusoan Pilot said.

"Thanks Fuji nine. That was exhilarating, and grueling, I hope I never have to go through that again." Hughes replied still panting, as he looked for a new target.

 **XXXX**

It was carnage on the ground, the Neuroi attack planes were dropping ordinance on anything that looked like a viable target. One of the men on the ground, was young Marine Private by the name Pvt. Frank Delgado, he was a 19 year old man hailing from Little Rock Arkansas, he had short brown hair and grey eyes, he stood roughly 5 feet 6 and half inches tall, he was wearing standard issue Marine Combat Uniform; he was manning a M1921 Water Cooled .50 Caliber Machine Gun; at the moment he was currently slamming a new ammo belt into the feed. Once that was done he looked up and saw the damnedest thing he had ever seen. A Neuroi fighter, flying fast, low, and inverted came screaming toward his position, almost every single AA gun on Eastern Island was shooting at it, from the Liberion M1921 .50 Caliber AA guns, to Liberion made 3in/50 Caliber DP guns, to Fusoan Made Type 96 25mm AA guns, to rifles, and even pistols. The enemy plane simply became a streak of fire, as the engine, and the fuel tanks in the wings caught fire.

Suddenly a massive explosion rocked Eastern Island, a massive expanding plume of fire and smoke roared skyward. Delgado would later learn that one of the 7in coastal guns took a direct hit, which cooked off the nearby powder bags and ammunition, causing that titanic explosion which also destroyed the gun, but sprayed shrapnel everywhere; pieces of that gun, were even found on Sand Island.

Moments after that Delgado began scanning the skies for targets; it didn't take long. He set his eyes on a Eradicator level bomber, it was making a beeline for the runway. He pulled back the bolt, and opened fire his .50 caliber machine gun adding to the deep booms of the 5in/38 caliber guns, 3in/50 caliber guns, and Type 10 120mm AA guns, and the rapid-fire hammering and chatter of the 37mm M1 AA guns, Type 96 25mm AA/AT Guns, 20mm Oerlikon, Type 98 20mm AA gun, the Ho-103 machine guns, and lastly the M1921 .50 Caliber Machine Guns.

Delgado grinned as his target burst into flames and tumbled into the water.

Suddenly he heard the distinctive sound of a bomb whistling through the air, seconds later. A 750lb Neuroi time delayed bomb landed in his foxhole. Several men who saw what happened next, said later they had never seen someone scramble out of a foxhole so fast. He got maybe twenty feet away when it exploded. A thunderous blast sending dirt, debris, and one M1921 Machine Gun bent beyond all recognition into the air.

This was just one instant of the amount of close calls, that Liberion and Fusoan Marines Army, and Navy personnel had on the ground.

 **XXXX**

The air attack was beginning to wind down, Fusoan Witch Saki Yoshida was up looking for Neuroi stragglers. However she had watched as a pair of Wildcats land just as the attack had begun, the landing gear had collapsed on both planes when they had landed. One pilot was able to get into a slit trench, however the other was dragged from his plane after it had crashed into a revetment.

Saki Yoshida was having a ball of a time, over China she had bagged three Neuroi, and today she had earned herself four confirmed kills, with two assists, and a probable! She had 8 kills! She was an ace! Two more today and she will be a double ace!

Saki Yoshida, was 13 years old, hailing from Tokyo, Fuso. She was wearing a Standard Imperial Fuso Army Aviator Uniform. She had short blue-black hair and sea green eyes, while her familiar is of the Tosa dog breed native to Fuso, her weapon is a Type 92 Machine gun, and her magic ability is eruption.

"Fuji 3 is hit! He's going down!" A Liberion pilot yelled.

"I see the bastard responsible! I am going after him! Cover me Rainbow 14!" A Liberion Witch shouted.

"Roger that Rainbow 11, I am right behind you!" The pilot of Rainbow 14 said. A few moments later she heard and joyous whoop. "I got him!" Rainbow 11 barked.

That was when Saki spotted something. It looked like three dive bombers, they had just entered a shallow dive. Saki cursed when she saw that the building they had picked out was the Laundromat. The bastards had already hit the hospital, now they were just adding insult to injury.

She dove at them, fire walling her strikers as she did so. The enemy planes steepened their dive. She pulled the trigger on her Type 92, tracers arched toward one of the dive bombers, striking it near the wing root. The rounds ripped the wing right from the dive bomber, it instantly went into a spin, flames spewing from where she had severed several fuel lines.

The reaction from the Neuroi was interesting one aborted its run, pulling up sharply and in the process, snapping both its wings off, thanks to pulling too many gees. The last one bored in, however one of the few remaining enemy fighters that were still in the combat airspace, the rest having left due to fuel constraints. Noticed the predicament of the dive bombers and raced in to help them with their fighter problem.

Saki went chasing after the last dive bomber; its single tailgun opened up sending a rapid fire barrage of Neuroi bolts screaming toward her, she deftly dodged the bolts and put her shield up as needed. She had just lined up her shot, when the bomb fell away from the enemy plane, plunging toward laundromat. "SHIT!" Saki swore, as she chased down the dive bomber, she lined up her shot again, and fired, a stream of 7.7mm ammunition which thanks to eruption hit with the force of a 12.7x99mm round, impaled the bomber racking it from wingtip to wingtip. The whole Bomber exploded into a million pieces.

As she pulled out of her dive, she watched the bomb impacted and completely destroy the Laundromat, which although no one was inside the building, it did incinerate every article of clothing inside, including all of the clothes that Admiral Jack Fletcher had save for what he was wearing.

However, suddenly an enemy fighter came screaming out of nowhere and got locked solidly on Saki's six. Before she could even react, it opened fire, one of her striker units took the brunt of the attack, as it had flames erupted from it, however several shots did in fact hit her, while none of the shots were fatal, they were painful, she did lose all ability to maintain flight, because moments later her other striker quit. "Aw fuck" she muttered as she dropped like a rock and hit the water with a fairly visible splash.

"Shitfuck! Fuji Twenty-two down!" A Liberion pilot barked.

"This is Fuji Twenty-Two; I am still alive, for the moment. But not for long, the enemy plane that shot me down is coming around again, the bastard is going to strafe me in the water." Saki said as her head breached the water, slightly amazed that her transmitter hadn't been ruined when she went in the drink, as she watched the enemy plane bear down on her.

Suddenly another engine roared, and then an F2A-3 Buffalo appeared, flames licking out of the engine, a enemy dive bomber locked solidly on the tail of the Buffalo. Right behind the Neuroi Dive Bomber trying to splash it, was a Wildcat. Then Saki watched in horror as the Buffalo, intentionally flew right into the Neuroi fighter, both planes in an instant disintegrating into an unrecognizable mess and tumbling toward the water. The Neuroi Dive Bomber that had been pursuing the Buffalo pulled up sharply and began to turn away, to avoid the collision, only to get a solid dose of Liberion express delivered 12.7x99mm death to the fuel tanks, for the whole dive bomber blew itself apart.

"My god!" Saki uttered watching as the Liberion pilot willing sacrificed himself by ramming his plane intentionally into the Neuroi fighter, just to save her. By this point in time, the majority of the Neuroi planes left the airspace around Midway. However many different buildings had been hit, including the Hospital, Seaplane Hangars, power generators which meant no more RADAR, one of the watchtowers had been felled by a near bomb miss, the list went on.

 ***BGM ends***

 **XXXX**

 _0710 Hours_

 _June, 4th 1942_

 _Enemy Carrier Group_

The admiral in charge of the Neuroi fleet, had expected an Allied counter-attack and thus had a full Combat Air Patrol in the air. He also had the majority of his planes armed for a anti-ship action, yet he then received a report from the Cmdr. of the Strike Force sent against Midway that a second strike was needed. The Runways on Midway were still operational. The admiral in charge decided to have the three carriers set aside for a anti-ship action have their planes taken below decks to be rearmed with demolition bombs and unguided rockets. Added to the fact that he didn't believe in RADAR and its capabilities. So even though all of his ships had RADAR, he didn't believe it was all that useful and thus disregarded all RADAR reports.

At around the same time, Admiral Spruance and Admiral Yamanto began launching strike planes to attack the enemy carrier fleet. However in 1942 coordinating large scale air strikes using the air wings of multiple Aircraft Carriers was not Liberion's forte. Thus a lot of the Liberion air groups ended up separating each going in its own direction to find the enemy fleet. The majority of the groups found themselves with no fighter cover and alone.

While this was happening back at the enemy carrier fleet, the six TBF-1 Torpedo planes, and three witches flying TBF-1 Torpedo Bomber Strikers appeared on the horizon suddenly the entire enemy fleet was right there! It was massive. "Holy mother of god! They want us to attack that?!" A young witch by the name of Megan Smith, an Ensign hailing from Salt Lake City, Utah gasped in disbelief as she took in the enemy fleet. "Where the hell is our fighter cover? The enemy CAP will rip us to pieces!" Another witch by the name of Clare Hamilton hailing from Miami Florida barked. Then the flight leader intervened. "Alright cut the chatter. This is Grey Fox Leader to all pups we are going in! Follow me!" The commander of the Midway detachment of Torpedo Squadron 8, Lt. Langdon K. Fieberling ordered.

Lt. Fieberling and his flight pressed the attack, as from high above, enemy fighters which were serving as the CAP jumped them. The TBF-1s fought back to the best of their ability as did the Witches. However with no fighter cover, the defenses that they had were quickly overwhelmed. The Neuroi fighters went for the second section which was composed of three TBF-1s and one witch.

"Help! This is pup six! I have two on my tail! For the love of god! Somebody he-" A pilot in the second section of TBF-1s cried before his message was cut-off as the TBF-1 was riddled with holes that killed the pilot and the plane rolled out of formation.

"Mayday! Mayday! This is pup eight! We're going down! Get out! Ge-" The pilot of Pup 6 barked before his message was cut-off as well when his TBF-1 slammed into the water.

Then three fighters swooped in on Pup seven, before the pilot could even send a frantic radio message, his plane was riddled with Neuroi bolts and just plain blew up. Killing all three in the TBF in an instant.

Lt. Fieberling watched as the Neuroi fighters began to pounce on the lone witch in the second section of his flight. "GET OUT OF THERE MARIA!" He bellowed, but the warning came too late for the young witch. She twisted one way as a fighter fired a burst at her, which she barely dodged. Then put her shield up to avoid getting nailed by another burst. Finally an enemy fighter came at her from the side, and nailed her with Neuroi Bolts from roughly where her elbow was, and riddled her all the way down to her Striker Units. The striker units promptly caught fire and then began to sputter and die.

"Sorry, boss. I got hit. Pup nine going down." Ensign Maria Anders said weakly before she lost consciousness from a combination of blood loss and pain, and thus descended into the water impacting it with a heavy crash that killed her instantly.

"Sonofabitch! The second section is completely gone!" Megan cried as the Neuroi cap pounced on them. The defensive guns on the TBF-1s opened fire, sending streams of .30 caliber ammunition toward the Neuroi fighters, however the Neuroi planes easily evaded the defensive fire put up by the TBF-1s. The first member of the first section to be shot out of the sky was Pup five, Ensign Clare Hamilton was grazed in the arm by a Neuroi bolt, which caused her entire left arm to explode into agonizing pain thus she dropped her defensive weapon, a single .30 Caliber A/N M2 machine gun and clutched her arm and let out a scream of pain. Thus she didn't even feel the pain from when a Neuroi fighter climbed toward her from below, and fired, sending Neuroi bolts screaming into her back with several going between the shoulder blades, killing her in an instant. She tumbled out of formation, and towards the water.

"Pup five is gone!" Radioman/gunner Harry Ferrier snarled over the radio as he heard the tailgunner Jay D. Manning suddenly stop firing and the plane bucked violently, and felt something graze his head, this caused him to lose consciousness. Meanwhile in the cockpit of Pup three, Ensign Albert K. Earnest cursed as Neuroi bolts racked across his plane, shattering the compass, smashing the electrical system, disabled the Hydraulics which caused the tail wheel to drop slowing down the already slow torpedo bomber. In that moment, Albert came to the realization that pressing the attack on the enemy Aircraft Carriers was pure suicide. He thus went for the nearest target of opportunity, an enemy light cruiser. He successfully dropped his torpedo and then turned away from the enemy fleet. Pup four had actually followed him, having the exact same idea and dropped her two torpedoes, and began to follow Pup three.

However, Grey Fox Leader and Pup Two, pressed on toward the enemy Aircraft Carriers. Both managed to drop their torpedoes, however both TBF-1s were shot down by enemy fighters a few minutes later as they were trying to escape from the enemy fleet.

 **XXXX**

"Pup Three this is Pup four. Come in Pup three." Ensign Megan Smith said as she held her side were a Neuroi bolt had impacted her.

"This is Pup Three, go ahead Pup four." Earnest said through gritted teeth.

"Pup three, how the hell how are going to find Midway? My wrist compass has been shot off my wrist." Megan said. Megan was a 15-year old witch, she was tall for her age, at nearly 5 feet 7 inches tall, she had dark red hair and amethyst colored eyes, her familiar was that of a Great Pyrenees, and her magic ability was Eruption.

"I have an idea Megan, because my compass is gone too, as is the hydraulics, elevator controls are damaged from the feel of it, and the electrical system is shot as well. Let's climb as high as we can, and look for a huge column of black smoke, because remember we were launched like we were so we wouldn't get caught on the ground by the Neuroi. We find that column of Black smoke, we find Midway and safety." Earnest replied, he then heard a groan over the plane intercom.

"Uh, my head." Harry groaned.

"Don't worry Harry we will be home soon." Albert said as he wrestled the TBF-1 skyward.

 **XXXX**

Around the time that the Midway detachment of VT-8 or what was left of it was beginning to limp home; A new threat to the Neuroi flattops appeared, four B-26 Marauders and two witches using B-26 Marauder Striker Units, these things were quite literally the newest thing in United States Army Air Corps medium bomber technology.

The B-26s were each lugging externally a single Mark 13 Mod 1 Aerial Torpedo and the two witches using B-26 Strikers were each lugging two Mark 13 Mod Aerial Torpedoes. They came screaming in fast and low, maybe fifty or at most a hundred feet off the water. As they approached the carriers, six "Fangs" came in lined up wing tip to wing tip, gunning for the Marauders. At the speed the Marauders were going at, even a "Fang" would have to hustle. The flak coming in from the enemy ships got thicker and thicker the closer the B-26s and the Witches with the B-26 Striker Units got.

Suddenly a fighter dove on one of the B-26s and riddled its nose with Neuroi bolt fire, shredding it for the most part, and killing the nose gunner, copilot, and pilot for the Marauder lurched and then tumbled into the Ocean fragmenting on impact, killing all onboard instantly.

"SHIT! Javelin four down!" One of the witches yelled over the radio.

"We can do this! Stay on target boys and girls!" The pilot of the lead B-26, Captain James F. Collins barked.

"Damnit right we can! Let's just pick out our targets and drop our fish and then run like the devil himself is behind us!" One of the witches growled.

The remaining Marauders and the two witches dropped their torpedoes. Most of the torpedoes broke up on impact as the stall speed of the Marauder was higher than the recommended drop speed for the Mark 13 Mod 1 torpedo. One of the Marauders suddenly took a direct hit from flak. "Oh shit! This is Javelin two! We're hit! I can't hold her! Going for a ram! Godspeed everyone!" The pilot of Javelin two barked.

The Marauders broke and began to turn and burn. Two of the Marauders as well as the Witches came in hard low and fast. They went screaming over the deck of one of the _Storm Cloud_ -class Supercarriers, getting so close that if the landing gear had been down, it likely would have touched the flight deck. This action sent everyone on the flight deck, island, or manning a open AA gun mount ducking for cover, just in case one accidently hit the carrier.

Meanwhile, "Javelin two" climbed aggressively, and then nosed over and put his plane into a steep dive and went screaming toward one of the _Storm Cloud_ -class Supercarriers, the Marauder screamed in, with the intention of ramming. Every single Neuroi AA gun that could bare opened fire. Sending an almost constant stream of Neuroi bolts screaming upward, and the murderous red flak the Neuroi seemed to prefer began exploding around the B-26, the gunners were desperate to bring the thing down. The B-26 just narrowly missed the bridge, where the enemy Admiral was standing. It also sent everyone on deck and on the bridge ducking for cover.

 **XXXX**

As the Marauders were leaving, Captain James Collins thought that the battle was over for him at least at the moment. When suddenly a blazing grouping of Neuroi bolts impacted the Marauder later determined to be of 23mm caliber, Collins cursed and jinxed left to avoid more enemy fire. As the enemy fighter swung around for another pass, the waist gunner opened fire and splashed the thing. Collins in the meantime did a flight check. He found out that the enemy plane had succeeded in shooting away the Hydraulic system.

As the Marauders began the trip back to Midway at altitude; they had fared a lot better than the previous unit to attack the Neuroi Carrier Fleet, and had again unknowingly disrupted the rearming process for the Neuroi Carriers. The attack had costed the United States Army Air Corps fourteen of best and brightest, in return the Marauders had shot down two "Fangs" but had scored no torpedo hits.

 **XXXX**

Meanwhile, the Neuroi while they had launched scouts they had only launched five scouts, but it wasn't the best, and scout was delayed by thirty minutes. Yet the picture was about to change entirely for the Neuroi. Scout plane number four from the YIRS _Eitbet_ or in english the YIRS _Holy Beast_ , was about to spot something, that would change the tactical picture drastically. As the plane flew into a break in the clouds, the pilot spotted several ships.

"What are those things?" The pilot said to himself, as he got the identification manual out, and began to look at the various points on the ship. _No doubt it, that is a_ Yorktown _-class, looks like the lead ship of the class, USS_ Yorktown _. Now then, who are your friends?_ The pilot thought to himself as he looked at the rest of the formation. He quickly picked out a _Portland_ -class, and a _Kongo_ -class as well, he also spotted the Fusoan Aircraft Carrier _Kaga_. This was a startling development, because there were Liberion and Fusoan ships in the area and within striking range! The pilot quickly ordered his radioman to send a radio message to the fleet, explaining the discovery of what it had found.

 **XXXX**

Around the time that the Neuroi scout plane discovered Task Force 17; Major Lofton Henderson and his group of 16 SBD-2s and 19 Dive Bomber Witches flying SBD-2 Striker Units appeared, this represented the entirety of the SBD-2s that were Operational that day. These planes and witches were from Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241. The Neuroi CAP wasted no time in racing to intercept them.

Yet despite taking heavy fire from fighters as well as heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire. VMSB-241 pressed the attack. "Alright, remember everyone! Don't do anything like the navy dive-bomber boys do. I don't want anyone going Hell-diving. Just the normal glide bombing. Let us begin!" Major Henderson barked, as he put his plane into a thirty degree dive. The rest of the planes and witches followed suit.

Suddenly a flak round detonated right under Henderson's plane, somehow didn't detonate his payload, his plane visibly shuddered, and the underbelly got shredded, and it killed the tailgunner. "Major! Your hit! Pull out! Pull out!" A witch frantically pleaded.

"Negative, Hunter twenty! I am leading this group right in! What sort of squadron leader would not take the same risks as the rest of his squadron even if he is hit?" Henderson snapped.

"But with all due respect sir! I can see your plane from where I am and it is heavily damaged! Pull out, sir! Please just pull out, sir!" The Witch, 2nd Lt. Melissa Callaghan pleaded, trying to convince Major Henderson to pull out.

"2nd Lt. Callaghan! I can tell you right now! I am dead set on leading this attack! I understand that you are worried for my safety but right now I don't really give a _damn_ about that!" Henderson snapped.

"Sir! Please just do it! The bottom of your plane looks like Swiss Cheese!" Callaghan said, on the verge of begging.

Henderson never got the chance to respond, for suddenly fire exploded out from belly of his plane and rapidly engulfed the dive bomber. The plane fell out of formation and out of sight. "MAJOR!" Callaghan screamed, unable to believe that her CO, was gone. It also visibly shook several other witches and even a few of the regular Marine Pilots. "Damnit! Continue the attack! Remember your training, let's do this!" A Marine pilot yelled, just before a burst of triple AAA ripped the right wing right off his SBD-2, the plane fell out of formation and plunged toward the ocean engulfed in flames.

The fighters were also ripping the planes to shreds. By the time the SBD-2s released their bombs, eight had been swatted from the sky, as well as five witches.

Despite the Liberions best efforts, no hits were scored, but the Neuroi CAP was losing cohesion from the almost constant air attacks. Many of the pilots were beginning to tire from the constant action. Plus the rearming process had been completely disrupted by the constant maneuvering as for rearmament of the attack planes, the ship had to be on an even keel. The evasive maneuvering was giving the hanger crews anything but an even keel. However another threat to the Neuroi carriers appeared, this time flying at 19,000 feet.

Lt. Cmdr. Walter Sweeny Jr. heavy and medium bombers and witches moved in to attack the enemy fleet. He ordered his bombers to split into groups of five and to stay in tight formations and bomb the enemy carriers. Not even the Neuroi cap engaged Sweeny's bombers and bomber witches. For several reasons, one they were flying a close formation, two it would take quite a while for the "Fangs" to get up to where the B-17s, Witches with the B-17 Striker Units, G4M1s, and Witches with G4M1 Striker Units, and third even if the "Fangs" were at the proper altitude to engage the bombers, the majority were B-17s, which were stupendously tough and bristling with A/N M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Guns. However while practically immune to engagement by enemy fighters. The bombers did have to worry a little bit about flak, and well the chances of hitting a moving target from a moving target from an altitude of 4 miles up is near as dammit to impossible, with only a 1% chance to hit, the magic ability eruption does help with this, which can make near misses into a lot of underwater damage, but you still needed to get near miss to do any meaningful damage. However they had forced the enemy ships to maneuver which had halted all rearming, the launch of new CAP fighters, and the recovery of the current CAP planes. However, none of the bombs that were dropped succeeded in hitting the target.

Just five minutes after the Heavy and Medium Bombers had attacked and then left. The rest of VMSB-241 showed up, eleven practically ancient Vindicator Dive Bombers and eight Witches flying Vindicator Striker Units that weren't that much better in terms of condition. It didn't help matters that pilots, gunners, and witches of the Vindicator section of VMSB-241 were very green. These crews and witches were so green they had in fact been called "the greenest group ever assembled for combat".

As the Vindicators and Witches approached the enemy fleet, the Neuroi CAP wasted no time in engaging the Liberions. However, Major Norris commander of the Vindicator section knew that his ancient planes wouldn't make it through to the Neuroi Carriers. In fact they could even see the SBD-2s and witches from VMSB-241 beginning to leave the Neuroi carrier fleet behind. So he made a decision that saved a lot of Liberion lives. "Listen up! We are not going after the enemy Aircraft Carriers, we will never make it through the enemy CAP and AA fire alive. So let's go after that nice big juicy battleship instead! All planes and witches follow my lead!" He barked and led his Vindicators and Witches toward the closest _Ravager_ -class Fast Battleship. The Liberion dive bombers entered their shallow dives, even as AA fire raced up to meet them. Somehow all of the Vindicators and witches got through the dive okay. However it was during the escape, that the Vindicators and Witches ran into trouble from marauding enemy planes, however Major Norris had after he pulled out of his dive, radioed what bearing to put your compass on to get home.

Two Vindicators and a Witch spotted a returning enemy floatplane. "Come on boys let's shoot that thing down!" The Witch barked, 16 year old Julia Martinez, hailing from Portland Maine. She had long brownish red hair and hazel colored eyes. While her familiar is a Black Bear, while her magic ability is healing magic.

"I wholeheartedly agree with you Private Martinez! We didn't score any hits on that Battleship, but the Neuroi bastards hammered our home! I think it is time for a little revenge!" The pilot of one of the Vindicators 2nd Lt. Kenneth Champion said.

"You got that right Mr. Champion!" The other Vindicator pilot, 2nd Lt. George Lumpkin said. A few moments later Lumpkin cursed. "Crap! Nevermind that plane! We got Fangs diving on us! Quick take cover in the clouds!" He barked, then quickly pulled up into a cloud, Lumpkin flew using instruments for roughly five minutes before he exited the clouds and began the trip back to Midway Island.

"I see them! Shit! They are right on top of us!" The tail gunner of the remaining Vindicator, Private Anthony Maday said, as 2nd Lt. Champion by accident turned the wrong way, away from a cloud a safety.

"Eat bullets, bastard!" Maday snarled as his lone .30 caliber machine gun roared to life. Same with Martinez's .30 Caliber A/N M2 machine gun. However the limited defensive firepower that the Vindicator and the Witch were putting up was really just for show considering that four Fangs were diving on them.

"GOT ONE!" Martinez whooped as flames exploded into existence around the engine of one of the Fangs. Moments later the three remaining Fangs opened fire. Streams of Neuroi energy bolts raced toward the Witch and the Vindicator. One Fang focused on the Vindicator, while the other two Fangs focused down on Martinez, who had thrown her shield up.

The Vindicator didn't last long under the massive amount of firepower that the Fang was kicking out, shots slammed into the tail section, gunner's seat which caused the defensive MG to fall silent, and into the wings and engine. The Vindicator quickly became a fiery comet of death that carried its crew of two right to their deaths.

As with Martinez both Fangs targeting her blew past. Having worked over her shield pretty effectively. However she nailed an amazing 1500 foot long deflection shot against the fighter that had bagged the Vindicator. The rounds decimated the engine and caused it to catch fire, the enemy plane rolled toward the ocean. Leaving a long trail of black smoke in its wake. She began to proceed to begin to climb into the clouds, but she made a fatal error. She forgot to check her six. The first indication she had that she was in real serious trouble was when a burst of Neuroi bolts went screaming over her head. She spun as quick as she dared on her X and Y axis and saw one of the Fangs bearing down on her. The nose and wings lighting up Neuroi energy bolt discharges. Before she could even raise her shield, at least thirty Neuroi energy bolts slammed into torso, the last thing Martinez saw, was her own blood splashing outward from her body.

 **XXXX**

On the way home, another Vindicator and a Witch flew up into a cloud, and were not seen again. Some speculate that when they entered the cloud they got disoriented and went off course, flying over open ocean until they ran out of fuel and magic respectively, and wound up crashing and dying from starvation or wounds suffered in the crash. Others say that they were abducted by aliens that were not Neuroi. No one really knows what happened to that Vindicator crew and Witch.

The last Vindicator was lost just five miles from Midway. The Vindicator in question was piloted by a former F2A-3 Buffalo pilot 2nd Lt. Daniel Cummings Vindicator which had been shot to hell by enemy fighters and flak, the plane had been leaking fuel. Forcing Cummings to ditch. His plane sank almost immediately only giving Cummings just enough time to check on his tail gunner a volunteer too, Private First Class Henry Irving Starks. Cummings found that Private Stark was dead.

2nd Lt. Cummings was later picked up by a Patrol Boat. The Vindicators of VMSB-241 would claim that they shot down six Fangs and damaged three more, which is fairly impressive.

 **XXXX**

This was the last of the Liberion and Fusoan attacks from the planes based at Midway Island made against the Neuroi fleet, which ended at 0840 hours. The losses were murderously high, with not one successful hit made against an enemy ship.

Now, the two Fleet Carriers could begin recovering aircraft from the Midway Strike Package. The Liberion and Fusoan AA fire, fighters, and witches had claimed roughly thirty-eight planes, most of them dive bombers and torpedo bombers although out of that thirty-eight, twelve of the planes that didn't return were fighters, including the fleet's ace of aces, another twenty-two aircraft were heavily damaged, with another forty aircraft having damage to some degree. The enemy AA fire had been incredibly thick and accurate, plus the enemy fighter pilots and witches had been no slouches either.

However unknown to the Liberions and the Fusoans; while they hadn't scored any hits on any enemy ship, it had completely disrupted the Neuroi re-arming and re-spotting operations. With the strike package from Midway returning and the CAP desperately needing to be rotated, the Neuroi Carrier Flight Operations were a complete and utter mess at this point.

 **XXXX**

 _June 4th, 1942_

 _0816 Hours_

With the remains of the Liberion torpedo bombers, dive bombers, bombers, witches, as well as Fusoan bombers, and witches from Midway on the return legs to home, Midway was going to become very busy very soon, rearming, repairing, and refueling the planes. Thus they weren't going to be able to attack the Neuroi Carrier fleet for quite a while.

In the meantime, the Strike Package from the USS _Enterprise_ CV-6, which had departed after strike packages from the _Hornet_ and the _Hiryu_ , were out looking for the enemy fleet.

However the strike package from the USS _Hornet_ CV-8 went west looking for the fifth and sixth Neuroi aircraft carriers.

However, Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, is certain that Air Group Commander Stanhope Ring is going to miss the Neuroi fleet. "Commander Ring, I am tell you that the information you are planning our course on is hours old. There ain't nothing out there but open ocean." Waldron said over the radio.

"Mr. Waldron, I am dead certain that the Neuroi fleet is still where we got our first sighting." Commander Ring replied over the radio.

"I am telling you sir. The Neuroi Fleet ain't there no more, they were moving Southeast at roughly 20 knots, they have moved, sir!" Waldron growled.

"Yeah, but remember we got two separate sighting reports. We have four confirmed aircraft carriers moving southeast. However we don't know where the other two Aircraft Carriers are! The last thing we need is to get blindsided by them." Commander Ring shot back.

"Sir, I don't want to lead the men under my command to certain death at the hands of starvation and sharks. I am going to smell the damn Neuroi out, sir!" Waldron shot back.

"Alright Lt. Commander Waldron. You may "smell out the damn Neuroi". Just please be careful all of the girls are still pretty green as this is their first combat sortie for all of them." Commander Ring said.

"Thank you sir and I will be careful with the young ladies as well sir!" Waldron said.

Had Commander Stanhope Ring been a witch with the magic ability of Foresight or had read tarot cards he would have most likely downright begged Waldron not to do it, and instead would have told him that they were all going to follow him. Had this happened, what befell Torpedo Squadron 8 or VT-8 might have never happened in the first place. The problem was, there wasn't a single Witch who was in the _Hornet_ Air Group who had the magic ability of Foresight, the _Yorktown_ had one, the _Kaga_ had one, the _Akagi_ had, the _Soryu_ had two, the _Hiryu_ had one, and the _Enterprise_ had two witches with the ability.

However, due to a major misplay on Commander Ring's part, plus the lack of a witch who had Foresight as her magic ability in the USS _Hornet_ 's air group. When Lt. Cmdr. John C. Waldron peeled away and led his command VT-8 which was composed of 15 TBD Devastator Torpedo Bombers and 10 Torpedo Bomber Witches off of the course bearing 240 and onto a course going bearing 235, the stage was set for a Liberion Torpedo Bomber Squadron attack that would become the stuff of legends.

 **XXXX**

 _0830 Hours_

A second Neuroi recon plane went out, and confirmed what the YIRS _Eitbet_ 's recon plane had spotted earlier. Two Allied Aircraft Carriers, with four heavy cruisers not two, one battleship, and ten destroyers. The report also stated that two of the heavy cruisers, the battleship, and four of the destroyers as well as one of the Aircraft Carriers, were in fact Fusoan.

The USS _Yorktown_ also had to delay her launch, as she had to recover ten SBD Dive Bombers that had been sent North on a scouting mission. The _Yorktown_ wouldn't launch her strike planes until 0905 hours and when she did, Admiral Fletcher ordered that a deferred departure be used, unlike in a normal departure where the air groups form up over the Aircraft Carrier, in a deferred departure the planes take-off and slowly proceed to their target, the air groups form up enroute.

This changed this drastically the Admiral in charge ordered the rearming of planes to be halted yet again and for the demolition bombs to be removed as well as the rockets, and to have anti-ship bombs and torpedoes loaded onto the strike planes instead.

At 0918 the Neuroi finally finish recovering the strike planes that had attacked Midway earlier in the day. The Admiral in charge ordered that they be rearmed, refueled, and if need be repaired immediately for a anti-ship action.

 **XXXX**

However Commander Ring's troubles are not over yet, for while the Neuroi have finally finished recovering their strike planes from earlier. The ten Wildcat fighters and six Fighter Witches using Wildcat Striker Units of Fighting Squadron 8 or VF-8 are approaching the limit of no return. After a slightly heated hand signal exchange between the CO of the VF-8 Lt. Cmdr. Pat Mitchell and one of the pilots, Ens. John McInery due to the fact that they were under Radio Silence. The Wildcats and Witches begin to peel away, to return to the _Hornet_ heading back in groups of twos and fours, one of the worst possible things that could have happened was happening to the air group of the _Hornet_ , it was disintegrating, with planes and witches going off on their own to find the enemy, with the escort fighters and witches being forced to return to the carrier, while the dive bombers of Scouting 8 and Bombing 8 VS-8 and VB-8 continue on.

 **XXXX**

Lt. Cmdr. Waldron was leading VT-8 toward the Neuroi fleet, but he knew that the Neuroi would be expecting them. For he had spotted a few minutes ago, a Neuroi scout plane flying above and behind them, plus it was following them. It had probably radioed the Neuroi fleet about them.

 **XXXX**

 _0915 Hours_

 _June 4th, 1942_

At roughly 0915 hours, the entire Neuroi Fleet appeared before VT-8. "Hot diggity damn, would you look at that! The skipper really is part Sioux indian! He really did smell them out!" Radioman 3/c Robert Huntington said as he looked at all of the Neuroi ships spread out over the sea.

"This is Red Fox Leader to all kits, we're going in!" Lt. Cmdr. Waldron barked.

The TBD Devastator Torpedo Planes and the witches with the TBD Devastator Torpedo Bomber Witches commenced their attack just as the Neuroi were recovering the last of the planes from the Midway strike.

"Mr. Owens! A section of Torpedo Bombers and Witches, we are going to split up and catch these bastards in a hammer and anvil attack!" Lt. Cmdr. Waldron ordered.

"Yessir!" Lt. James C. Owens Jr. replied, before he told which TBDs and Witches were to follow him. The unit was split into two groups for roughly a minute, before the Neuroi cap dove from their patrol altitudes to engage VT-8. The enemy planes manage to herd VT-8 back together into one unit.

 **XXXX**

What followed, would become the stuff of legend. Lt. Cmdr. John C. Waldron would led his brave squadron right into the jaws of death, with no Fighter Escort, 15 TBD Devastator Torpedo Bombers went in, as did 10 Torpedo Bomber Witches using TBD Devastator Torpedo Bomber Strikers, and every single last one was shot down in nine minutes. With all but one man and witch killed in action.

 **XXXX**

Nearly the entire Neuroi cap descended on VT-8, each plane gunning to get some kills, they went after the TBDs like wild animals. As a result the Neuroi tore the TBDs apart. The radio went crazy with frantic calls for help.

"Fuck! Somebody help me! This is Kit 5! I have one on me I c-ARGH!" A TBD pilot screamed, as a Neuroi fighter cut his bomber to ribbons and killed the pilot.

"NO! Kit 17! She's been hit! She's going down!" A Liberion Witch screamed as her Wingman was shredded by burst from a Neuroi fighter plane, and the witch tumbled out of formation.

"This is Kit 6! I have three of them on me! For christ sakes somebody help me!" The pilot of Kit 6 screamed just before an enemy fighter landed a burst that punctured the glass cockpit that caused the instrument panel and fuel lines in the cockpit to explode, which killed him instantly, the now pilotless plane nosed over into a dive that it couldn't pull out of.

The TBDs and the witches who were equipped with the TBD striker units were dropping like flies. The Neuroi were having a field day, this attack was rapidly turning into a bloodbath.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! THIS IS KIT 9! I AM HIT! ONE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZERS IS GONE! I CAN'T HOLD-" The pilot of Kit 9 screamed as the back end of his plane was shredded and his plane lurched the left, as the left horizontal stabilizer was shot completely away, the plane smashed into the ocean a few seconds later.

"Kit 25 has been hit by flak! She caught a flak burst right in the face! My god! My god! She's de-AHHHHHH!" A witch barked before she screamed as a fighter shredded her in a burst, that also demolished one of her strikers.

"This is Kit 4, I am hit! The engine is engulfed in flames! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" The pilot of Kit four screamed, as he plane plunged toward the sea, slamming into the water and coming apart on impact killing the crew.

Lt. Cmdr. Waldron knew his squadron was lost as frantic radio messages, all of them frantic, urgent, and sometimes pleading messages for help. _Sorry Commander Ring, I have a feeling, that no one from VT-8 is going to be returning, I am sorry sir. I failed to keep them safe._ He thought as more, frantic mayday calls finally ceased as the TBDs that were transmitting slammed into the water. Suddenly, three TBDs, and a pair of witches got through the fighter screen and a hail of murderous devastating flak came up to meet them.

"NARG! Kit 13 here! I am hit, going down! Sorry boss!" The pilot of Kit thirteen said as nasty burst of AA fire stitched across the engine causing it to explode into flames, the TBD, then fell from the sky and one its wings dropped just before impact. The TBD cartwheeled through the water.

"Kit 19 has been hit! She's going down!" Barked the pilot of Kit 3, Ensign Gay's plane. Walford thought.

The last thing Waldron saw before the entire left wing of his TBD exploded, was a long burst of red bolts coming toward it. _Aw fuck_ was all he was able to think, before the three second burst of 45mm Neuroi energy bolts ripped through the wing of his TBD Devastator, instantly shredding the wing and control surfaces. It also light the fuel tanks in the left wing and caused them to explode. The Devastator cork screwed into the water, disintegrating on impact killing both on board.

"Kit 16, you still with me?" Ens. George Gay asked as he bore down on an enemy _Storm_ _Cloud_ -class Supercarrier. "Yes, Kit three, I am still with you. Somehow. Not sure for how long though! Enemy fighters have decided to grow a pair of balls and are coming at us, full tilt. They are weaving through the flak like it's not even their!" The sole remaining Witch in VT-8 who was still in the air and alive said.

"Right, we are almost at our release point. Listen, Kit 16; if you get hit and survive hitting the water, do not inflate your life raft. That bright yellow thing well you might as well be putting up a giant sign that says "Here I am, I am an enemy pilot please come and capture me!" Trust me, I don't want to become a guest of the Neuroi." Ensign Gay barked.

"Yessir Kit three. I understand! Hang on! Torpedoes away!" Kit 16 called as her two Mark 13s dropped away. Ensign Gay reached over to a console and pulled the release. His Mark 13 Torpedo dropped away as well, he then yanked hard on the stick and pulled up sharply to avoid ramming the enemy ship. He watched as his torpedo obviously struck the side of the ship, but then he cursed as there was no boom. He had just succeeded in clearing the enemy carrier's deck, when the engine on his TBD Devastator just plain quit.

"Kit 16, my engine has had it, I am going in the drink! Get the fuck out of here!" Ensign Grey snapped.

"Kit three, that's impossible. I've been hit. I am going in. No way I can pull out." Kit 16 radioed.

 _Shiiiit!_ Gay thought. Moments later his plane practically belly-flopped into the drink. Thinking fast. Ensign Gay scrambled out of the rapidly sinking Devastator, but he did check on his tailgunner Radioman 3/c Robert K. Huntington only to find that he was dead, killed by a burst from a Neuroi fighter. He managed to track where Kit 13 was and watched as she impacted heavily with the water, it was a good 500 yards away. Thinking fast George grabbed his seat cushion which had come loose from his sinking plane and then swam as quickly as he could manage to where Kit 13 had gone in the drink.

 **XXXX**

Onboard the IFN _Akagi_ , Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo had listened to the radio as VT-8 had launched its attack on the Neuroi fleet without even a single F4F-4 Wildcat Fighter providing escort. Nagumo had listened to the desperate pleas for help which then would turn into frantic mayday calls which often stopped mid-transmission.

"They sacrifice themselves like Samurai, these Liberions." Nagumo said, as the last radio messages from VT-8 ceased. Even Nagumo hadn't seen such bravery from even his own pilots. Because well he knew that no sane man or witch for that matter would attack that enemy fleet without fighter cover. Then again from what he had seen, sometimes the men and women of the Liberion armed forces could be at times, a little crazy. Whatever the reason, the men of Torpedo Squadron 8 had earned a tremendous amount of respect from Vice Admiral Nagumo that day. Yet deep down he knew that the entire squadron was gone, all shot down and killed most likely.

Yet, there was something that was bugging him. There was something that Rear Admiral Spruance, commanding officer of the Liberion section of Task Force 16, had told him about. His eyes widened as he realized what it was. Before the battle, Admiral Spruance had told him that one of the members of Torpedo Squadron 8 was his own daughter Monica.

 **XXXX**

Back in about as close to the middle of the Neuroi Carrier strike force that you could get, Ensign George Gay had finally reached where Kit 16 had gone in. She was their trying to remain afloat, as one of her Striker Units had survived the landing in more or less one piece, yet she couldn't get the damn thing off. "Ensign Gay? Is that you." The witch asked.

"Yes it is. Okay, now then what's your name?" George asked the Witch as he was treading water. The reason that George had asked this question was because he hadn't gotten the chance to find out the names of all of the Torpedo Bomber Witches yet.

"I am Monica Spruance." The Witch answered.

 _OH FUCK! I fail to keep her alive and from being captured! Admiral Spruance will likely have my ass._ George thought as he gave the Witch a closer look. Yep, it was Monica Spruance alright. Monica had raven black hair and light blue eyes. She was roughly 14 and half years old, was around 5 feet 4 inches tall, and was wearing a standard Liberion Navy Airman Uniform. Her familiar is that of a Black Cat and her magic ability is 3 Dimensional Space Understanding.

"Alright Monica give me a second." George said as he took a deep breath and then swam under Monica and saw that the Striker Unit was staying stubborningly on. George grabbed the manual release and yanked, the thing didn't detach. Mentally cursing his luck George resorted to plan B. He first swam up to the surface. "Monica you're right striker unit is refusing to detach. I am going to yank it off. It might take a few tries, but then you will have an easier time treading water." George said.

"Thanks George." Monica said.

"No problem, you are Admiral Spruance's daughter after all." George replied as he took another deep breath and swam down to forcibly yank Monica's ruined right striker unit. He grabbed it, and yanked as hard as he could. Yet, the thing refused to budge. George yanked again and again, he was running out of time as his lungs were beginning to burn. _Come on you damn thing! Come loose!_ George thought as he gave one last yank and to his amazement it came off. He then quickly swam back to the surface and took a very welcome deep breath. "Better?" He asked, as he regained his breath. Monica nodded. "Good, now then we are not going to inflate the damn liferaft. However we are going to be using this seat cushion to protect us from the sun." George said as he looked around and found the damn thing. "Also, I want you to hang on to me, Piggy back style if you know what I mean. No offense to your swimming ability, but you are probably pretty close to exhausted and the last thing I need, is to have you pass out on me." George said.

Monica did as she was told. Both, George and Monica knew that they were likely the only survivors from Torpedo Squadron Eight. Both knew, that they had to avoid capture as well as dying from heat stroke.

 **XXXX**

 **XXXX**

 **XXXX**

 _1998_

The United States Navy provided something that could handle the crushing pressures and frigid temperatures of the Ocean three miles down, it is an unmanned underwater robotic vehicle or ROV for short, and it was loaded with high-powered floodlights, powerful cameras, and a multitude of instruments. The ROV was lowered into the water and the dive began, the target was the Imperial Fusoan Aircraft Carrier _Kaga_.

For the veterans it is like stepping into a time machine. The deeper the ROV descended, the further back in time they went.

The depth gauge hit 12,415 feet of water, the depth that Ballard found the RMS _Titanic_ and the ROV continued descending, the depth gauge hit 15,719 feet, the depth that Ballard discovered the wreck of the KKK _Rheinland_ , and yet the ROV continued descending, deeper than Ballard had ever gone before. Then just as the gauge reached 15,957 feet; something loomed in the cameras a shadow at first, barely visible. However the resolution rapidly went from being vague to being sharp. It was the island of the _Kaga_.

Just like the reports had stated, the _Kaga_ had come to rest on the ocean floor in two pieces. According to the SONAR sweeps the stern had landed on its side, the with a huge debris field leading to it, while the bow landed upright on the ocean floor. As the ROV, moved carefully around the Island and to the flight deck; it passed over a line of gun tubs, each one containing a twin Type 96 AT/AA gun, still pointing skyward as if trying to vainly defend the ship from the planes that sank her. The flight deck on the bow section had a jagged hole in it, from where a Neuroi 1,500lb AP bomb and punched through her flight deck like paper and then had plunged into the second hangar deck before exploding. A blast the had blown the sides out of the enclosed hangar deck. As the ROV approached the ship amidships, it suddenly got very jagged, with the metal getting bent and warped, then suddenly it cut off, a sudden drop straight to the ocean floor. As the ROV swung around, careful not to get snagged on anything. They came to the seafloor itself. That was when they got an idea for the force of the explosion. The blast had from the looks of it not only had been a magazine going off, but from the looks of it, judging by the damage near where the waterline had been. One of the fuel bunkers or avgas bunkers had gone off as a secondary explosion, or both had occurred, the official report had stated that three titanic explosions had convulsed the _Kaga_ within a period of thirty seconds. Which made the fuel bunker and avgas bunker exploding as a result of an explosion of a magazine, seemed plausible. Whatever the case, the damage to the ship from the massive explosions that had sheared her in half was awesome.

The stern of the IFN _Kaga_ lay nearly a kilometer away, all they did was follow the debris field to the stern. The stern was in very bad shape, the damage to it was severe, the official report that had said when she had sunk, that after the explosions, the carrier had jack knifed with the stern rapidly rolling to port capsizing and then sinking, while the bow had gone down gently by the stern. The stern was also almost unrecognizable as the stern of an aircraft carrier, it actually looked like the stern of the RMS _Titanic_ but on its side, with a large debris field going out in all directions, particularly out to where the flight deck had been, it was now for the most part scattered over the seafloor. The stern was so severely mangled that it was impossible to find the bomb penetration that had struck the carrier in the stern.

"Wow, I knew the _Kaga_ had been decimated by Neuroi bombers when she was sunk by them. However I never knew that it was this _bad_." Samantha said as she looked at the TV monitors that was showing the damage to the stern.

"The stern must have suffered most of this damage on impact with the seafloor. The exact same thing happened to the stern of the _Titanic_. The stern of the _Titanic_ was severely weakened when she split in two when she sank, the impact with the seafloor, caused all of the upper decks of the superstructure to collapse. So thus, when the stern section of the _Kaga_ sank, and after going down for just over three miles, it had a good rate of speed going. Thus when it came to stop suddenly, the weakened structure couldn't take the forces involved and thus, the damage we are seeing occurred. To be frank, I am surprised it didn't completely pancake onto itself." Ballard said as he looked at the video feed of the stern with a trained eye.

 **XXXX**

As the ROV came around to the actual stern of the wreck, everyone in the control room got a very interesting surprise. Faded, but still readable on the stern of the wreck, was two Fusoan Kanji, it was a great surprise to all in the room, because the two Kanji could only be one thing: the name of the ship. "Incredible, she's been on the bottom for nearly _sixty_ years, and somehow her name is still visible." Saki said, as she looked at the monitor which was displaying the stern of the _Kaga_ , and while faded, was two Fusoan Kanji.

"While this is rare, I don't think anyone has ever seen it at this sort of depth. The conditions must have been just right for this to occur." Ballard said as he too looked at the Kanji with fascination, which was understandable considering no one had actually seen this before at this sort of depth.

 **XXXX**

The exploration of the carrier _Kaga_ continued for another hour, before they hauled it up and set in a course to find one of the Neuroi carriers lost at Midway.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Phew! Good lord I need a breather! This was the most emotional chapter I have ever written. This was just how I felt doing the Allied Attacks on the Neuroi Fleet.**

 **Next Chapter is going to be a dedication chapter, to the men and witches who died either defending Midway Island from the Neuroi Strike Package, or died attacking the Neuroi Carrier force. I can tell you right now, that list is going to be very long.**


	4. The Fallen Warriors of Midway and Hornet

**A/N: In every war, there are always combatants who don't make it back home safe and sound. The Battle for Midway during the 2nd Neuroi War was no exception. The losses were heavy particularly for the Liberions. This following chapter will contain content to further the story. However it will contain, a list of those who didn't return to Midway or the USS** _ **Hornet**_ **CV-8 up to this point safely. Also note, that all of the aviators who were killed in the skies over Midway and above the enemy carrier fleet are marked as MIA because to put it simply their planes, striker units, or bodies have not been recovered.**

 **Also please note if the Fusoan names don't sound very Japanese; had to make them up on the spot.**

 **Also standard disclaimers apply, expect some historical errors.**

 **XXXX**

 ***Recommended Background Music: John Williams, Hymn to the Fallen***

The first of the brave aviators who went up into skies on the side of the allies in the face of very lopsided odds. Where Imperial Fusoan Army Pilots and Witches and the USMC pilots and witches of VMF-221 otherwise known as the Fighting Falcons. The Imperial Fusoan Army Pilots and Witches were some of the best in the world, flying the best planes that the Imperial Fusoan Army Air Corps had to offer. While the pilots of VMF-221 were flying old "Hand-me-down" antiques from the United States Navy. Nevertheless despite the odds the Marines of VMF-221 engaged, and thus were practically annihilated. With fourteen regular pilots killed out of twenty-five who were in the air that day, with three being forced to turn back before they even engaged or shortly afterward due to mechanical trouble. Out of the eighteen USMC Witches who took off into the Wild Blue Yonder; eleven didn't return, it should also be noted that Major Floria B. Parks was in command of the entire unit, which was a first for the USMC to have a Witch commanding any Aviation Unit. Combined for both the Men and Witches of VMF-221 twenty-three Navy Crosses were awarded, many posthumously and thanks to the actions of the unit, the unit as a whole was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

 **The fallen of VMF-221:**

Captain Robert Edward Curtin

2nd Lieutenant Walter Wade Swansberger

2nd Lieutenant Martin Edward Mahannah

2nd Lieutenant William B. Sandoval

2nd Lieutenant John Dewitt Lucas

2nd Lieutenant Bell W. Benson (First USMC Witch to go MIA in combat)

Captain Francis Peter McCarthy

2nd Lieutenant Ellwood Quayle Lindsay

Captain Daniel Joseph Hennessy

2nd Lieutenant David Wills Pinkerton Jr.

2nd Lieutenant Chris R. Rose

2nd Lieutenant Carl T. "CT" Hampton

2nd Lieutenant John Munroe Butler

Captain John Robert Alvord

2nd Lieutenant Eugene Proctor Madole

Major Flora Bruce "Red" Parks (Witch) (Commanding Officer of VMF-221)

Private First Class Isara Neuman (Witch)

Sergeant Emily J. Goodman (Witch)

Captain Sara King (Witch)

2nd Lieutenant Lindsey H. Delmont (Witch)

Flying Officer 1st Class Claria Reed (Witch)

2nd Lieutenant Kay Vandenberg (Witch)

2nd Lieutenant Daisy "DJ" Jefferson (Witch)

2nd Lieutenant Jessica M. Stewart (Witch)

2nd Lieutenant Jaime A. "Lucky" Rodriguez (Witch)

 **XXXX**

It should be noted that thanks to superior equipment, training, and more combat experience. The Imperial Fusoan Army Air Corps did very well over Midway. Suffering only two dead regular pilots and one dead witch.

 **The Fallen of the Imperial Fusoan Army Air Corps:**

Sergeant Ashi Ishika (Witch)

Flying Officer Haziake Bushido

Flying Officer Kita Ryokan

 **XXXX**

While the USMC Marines and Witches of VMF-221 and the pilots and witches of the Imperial Fusoan Army Air Corps, where fighting the Neuroi around and above Midway Island. Midway watched several waves of bombers, and redirected a group of Heavy and Medium Bombers to attack the Neuroi Fleet. They went in without fighter cover. These units save for the heavy and medium bombers, suffered heavily.

 **XXXX**

The first unit launched from Midway that found and attacked the Neuroi fleet, was a detachment of VT-8 stationed at Midway. This unit was composed of six TBF-1 torpedo planes and three witches equipped with TBF-1 striker units, the newest thing in Liberion Torpedo Bomber Technology. However since they attacked with no fighter cover, five were lost and the sixth was heavily damaged but did return to Midway.

 **The fallen of the VT-8 (Midway Detachment):**

Lieutenant Langdon K. Fieberling (Commanding Officer)

Ensign Jack Wilke

Radioman 2nd Class Arthur Osborn

Ensign Charles Brannon

Airman 3rd Class William C. Lawe

Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Charles E. Fair

Seaman 1st Class Jay D. Manning

Ensign Clare Hamilton (Witch)

Ensign Victor A. Lewis

Airman 3rd Class Nelson A. Carr

Electrician's Mate 3rd Class John W. Mehltretter

Ensign Oswald Gaynier

Ensign Joseph M. Hissem

Seaman 1st class Howard W. Pitt

Aviation Pilot 1st Class Darrel "D" Woodside

Painter 2nd class (note, possibly an error in the source material) Arnold T. Meuers

Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Lyonal J. Oregon

Ensign Maria Anders (Witch)

The only survivors from this unit are:

Ensign Albert K. Earnest

Radioman 3rd Class Harry Ferrier

Ensign Megan Smith (Witch)

 **XXXX**

The next unit to attack the Neuroi fleet from Midway was a group of B-26 Marauders. The group was composed of four B-26 Marauders and two Witches equipped with B-26 Marauder Striker Units. They went in with no fight cover, and lost two bombers and fourteen crew members.

 **The fallen of the Marauder attack:**

1st Lieutenant Herbert C. Mayes

2nd Lieutenant Garnett M. McCallister

2nd Lieutenant William D. Hargis

2nd Lieutenant Gerald J. Barnicle

Staff Sergeant Salvatore Battaglia

Private Benjamin F. Huffstickler

Private Roy W. Walters

1st Lieutenant William S. Watson

2nd Lieutenant L. H. Whittington

2nd Lieutenant John P. Schuman

Sergeant. James E. Via

Staff Sergeant Richard C. Decker

Corporal Albert E. Owen

Corporal Bernard C. Sietz

 **XXXX**

The next unit to attack the Neuroi fleet was a detachment of SBD-2s a part of VMSB-241 also known as the "Sons of Satan" Sixteen SBD-2s and twenty-five Witches attacked the enemy fleet. Again they had no Fighter Cover. The Neuroi CAP and AA fire ripped them to shreds. Flaming eight SBD-2s and killing five witches.

 **The fallen of VMSB-241 (SBD-2) Detachment:**

Major Lofton Russell Henderson (First USMC Aviator killed by enemy fire) (Commanding Officer)

Private 1st Class Lee Reininger

2nd Lieutenant Morgan "Hun" Hunson

Sergeant Lewis R. Binkman

Private 1st Class Matthew Edison

2nd Lieutenant Thomas John Gratzek

Sergeant Charles W. Recke

2nd Lieutenant Maurice Andrew Ward

Private 1st Class Harry Morton Radford

2nd Lieutenant Albert William Tweedy, Jr.

Sergeant Elza Lester Raymond

2nd Lieutenant Bruno Paul Hagedorn

Private 1st Class Joseph Thomas Piraneo

2nd Lieutenant Bruce Henry Ek

Private 1st Class Raymond Ralph Brown

Private 1st Class Edward Oliver Smith

2nd Lieutenant Sally Heathcliff (Witch)

Sergeant Nicole Willis (Witch)

Sergeant Judy Goodman (First USMC Witch to Killed in Action)

Private First Class Linus O'Neil (Witch)

Private First Class Jill "Master" Masterson (Witch)

 **XXXX**

As if to insult the units that attacked from Midway. The force of Liberion Bombers, Bomber Witches, Fusoan Bombers, and Fusoan Bomber Witches got through completely unscathed. Some of the bombers were damaged by flak but none were shot down.

 **XXXX**

The next unit to attack the Neuroi Fleet was the SB2U-3 Vindicator section of VMSB-241. Somehow the Vindicators and Witches that composed this section made it through the CAP relatively unscathed however it was during the escape that one Vindicator and one Witch was shot down, however on the return trip another Vindicator and Witch flew into a cloud and were never seen again. The last Vindicator lost had to ditch with Midway in sight, just a few miles from safety. The pilot survived, but the tail gunner had been killed during the attack on the enemy fleet.

 **List of the fallen of Vindicator section of VMSB-241:**

Private 1st Class Edby Marshall Colvin

2nd Lieutenant James H. Marmande

Private Anthony Joseph Maday

2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Oscar Champion

Private Henry Irvin Starks

2nd Lieutenant Julia Martinez (Witch)

Private Carly Bishop (Witch)

 **XXXX**

However the one unit that suffered the highest losses all told is the losses that VT-8 suffered, which were nearly total. The men of this Torpedo Bomber Squadron showed a level of bravery and daring that is on par with the men who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. They went in showing no fear. They went directly for their targets just as they were taught. The courage and daring displayed earned these brave men and witches the respect of both sides. Thanks to this bravery that shown in the face of hopeless odds, the unit as a whole received the Presidential Unit Citation, another thing all of the members of VT-8 who were assigned to the USS _Hornet_ for their gallantry were awarded the Navy Cross.

 **The fallen of Torpedo Squadron Eight (** _ **Hornet**_ **Detachment):**

Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron (Commanding Officer)

Lieutenant Raymond A. Moore

Lieutenant James C. Owens

Lieutenant Junior Grade George M. Campbell

Lieutenant Junior Grade John P. Gray

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jeff D. Woodson

Ensign William W. Abercrombie

Ensign William W. Creamer

Ensign Harold J. Ellison

Ensign William R. Evans

Ensign Henry R. Kenyon

Ensign Ulvert M. Moore (Not related in any way to Lt. Raymond Moore)

Ensign Grant W. Teats

Aviation Pilot 1st Class Robert B. Miles

Chief Radioman Horace F. Dobbs

Radioman 1st Class Amelio Maffei

Radioman 1st Class Tom H. Pettry

Radioman 2nd Class Otway D. Creasy Jr.

Radioman 2nd Class Ross H. Bibb Jr.

Radioman 2nd Class Darwin L. Clark

Radioman 2nd Class Ronald J. Fisher

Radioman 2nd Class Hollis Martin

Radioman 2nd Class Bernard P. Phelps

Seaman 2nd Class Aswell L. Picou

Seaman 2nd Class Francis S. Polston

Radioman 3rd Class Max A. Calkins

Radioman 3rd Class George A. Field

Radioman 3rd Class Robert K. Huntington

Radioman 3rd Class William F. Sawhill

Lieutenant Maya O. Barton (Witch)

Lieutenant Junior Grade Georgia Wilder (Witch)

Ensign Alisa D. Cain (Witch)

Ensign Grace M. Zander (Witch)

Ensign Swan L. Jackson (Witch)

Airman 1st Class Heather I. Heartwood (Witch)

Airman 1st Class Elizabeth R. Husker (Witch)

Airman 3rd Class Jesse B. Daring (Witch)

Seaman 1st Class Nora A. Schwartz (Witch)

There was only two survivors from Torpedo Squadron 8's attack on the Neuroi Carrier Fleet. They were:

Ensign George Gay

Ensign Monica Spruance (before you ask, yes she is the daughter of Admiral Raymond Spruance)

 ***End BGM***

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Alright, Thank god that is done! This was another really emotional piece for me to do!**

 **Anyways, next chapter. The Fusoans make a series of coordinated attacks on the Neuroi Carrier fleet. Another two Liberion Torpedo Squadrons will attack as well. We will see the debacle that was the USS** _ **Hornet**_ **combat operations during the battle. Two particularly famous submarines, one Fusoan the other Liberion will make an entrance as well. The tide will begin to turn in the exciting next chapter of Strike Witches: The Battle for Midway: Chapter 4: The Fusoan Sledgehammer!**


	5. The Fusoan Sledgehammer!

**A/N: Here we go! In this chapter something** _ **finally**_ **goes right for the Allies against the Neuroi Carrier Fleet courtesy of the Fusoans and their amazing skill at coordinating large scale carrier operations from multiple carriers! Thus here is where it begins to get slightly AU however in a good way.**

 **Again Standard Disclaimers apply.**

 **XXXX**

One unit that had gotten separated from its escort was VT-6, otherwise known as Torpedo Squadron 6 from the Liberion Aircraft Carrier USS _Enterprise_ CV-6. This unit was approaching the Neuroi Carrier force when rapidly approaching from behind having heard the frantic cries for help from VT-8; was a powerful strike package from the Imperial Fusoan Aircraft Carrier _Hiryu_ composed of twenty A6M2 Type 0 Model 21 Fighters, seventeen D3A1 Dive Bombers, sixteen B5N2 Torpedo Bombers, fifteen Fighter Witches flying A6M2 Type 0 Model 21 Striker Units, ten dive bomber witches flying D3A1 Dive Bomber Striker Units, and sixteen torpedo bomber witches flying B5N2 Torpedo Bomber Striker Units. They were coming in hard and fast. One of the Witches in the group spotted the lumbering TBD Devastator Torpedo Bombers and Witches first.

"Katana Leader from Tanto five. Katana from Tanto Five. Boss? I am picking up friendly aircraft up ahead, it's Torpedo Squadron Six from the Liberion Carrier _Enterprise_. I am not detecting any form of Fighter Escort at all." A witch by the name Pina Kitagyia said. Pina was a Fifteen year old witch hailing from Hiroshima, she is roughly five feet three inches tall, and has dark brown hair and green eyes. Her familiar is a Japanese Dog Breed called a Kai Ken and her magic ability is Three-Dimensional Space Understanding.

"What bearing Ms. Kitagyia?" The pilot of Katana Leader said.

"Bearing is from 395 to 005. We are gaining on them like you wouldn't believe, sir." Pina replied.

"Well, hot damn you are right. I see them; Fourteen TBD Devastator Torpedo Bombers and ten Torpedo Bomber Witches flying TBD Devastator Torpedo Bomber Striker Units. Also you are correct we are catching up to them, this is a real major stroke of luck for that Liberion Torpedo Bomber Squadron!" Katana Leader replied.

"Exactly Katana Leader! Plus it would boost the chances of the Liberion pilots surviving by at least a hundred-fold, because well; they say that Fusoan Imperial Navy Fighter Pilots are the best in the world." Pina said.

"Mmhmm, damn right I am! Now give me a minute while I contact that Liberion Torpedo Bomber Squadron." Katana Leader Said.

 **XXXX**

Lieutenant Commander Gene Lindsey grunted slightly in pain, from injuries he had suffered a few days before in a landing accident. However he had insisted on leading his squadron into battle and not resting in his rack aboard the _Enterprise_.

"Eagle twelve calling Bald Eagle. Eagle twelve calling Bald Eagle. Cmdr. Lindsey we have Fusoan planes approaching us from behind at a high rate of speed. It appears to be Zeroes, Vals, Kates, fighter witches, dive bomber witches, and torpedo bomber witches. They are on practically the same bearing as we are." A TBD pilot said.

"Thanks Eagle Twelve I see them, probably never would have noticed them if you hadn't seen them." Lindsey said as he eyed the planes that were catching up with his Devastators with ease.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Gene Lindsey commanding Torpedo Squadron Six. Unknown Strike Package on my six, please identify yourself!" Lindsey barked as he looked at the approaching Fusoan Strike Package.

A Fusoan voice was his answer. "Lieutenant Commander Lindsey, this is Lt. Commander Minoru Genda, callsign Tekken Leader, commander of a Strike Package from the _Hiryu_." Genda said introducing himself, he was flying a D3A1 Val Dive Bomber.

"Tekkan One, let me tell ya I am very happy to hear your voice. My Torpedo Bomber Squadron has wound up without Fighter Cover. Do you mind if I join your strike force?" Gene asked.

"Permission granted, welcome aboard Lieutenant Commander Lindsey." Commander Minoru said, more than pleased as his fighters would be able to make sure a lot of the planes from Eagle Squadron will be able to come home.

 **XXXX**

The now combined Liberion and Fusoan strike package continued westward. When suddenly a pilot of VT-6 spotted something. "Hey boss! I am seeing flak to the south, and it is all red too. The enemy fleet is south of us." The pilot of Eagle Six said.

"Roger that Eagle Six, I will alert Tekken Leader." Lindsey said.

"Bald Eagle Leader to Tekkan Leader. Bald Eagle Leader to Tekken Leader. Do you have your ears on?" Gene said, raising Tekken Leader.

"Tekken Leader here, what is it Bald Eagle Leader?" Genda asked.

"One of my pilots spotted flak to the south. It is possible it is the enemy fleet. Let's go check it out." Lindsey replied.

"Alright Bald Eagle Leader we will follow your hunch." Genda said, he then switched to the all hands freq. "All planes make a turn 90 degrees to our south, possible location of the enemy fleet is their.

 **XXXX**

A few minutes later the Fusoan/Liberion Strike Package broke through a break in the clouds. "Eagle eight to Bald Eagle Leader, I have eyes on five, wait no holy I have six Neuroi Carriers. Let's go get them!" The pilot of Eagle Eight barked.

"Alright then! Here is the attack plan! Katana and Tanto Squadrons engage the enemy CAP, keep those enemy fighters off of us! Tsukubo, Sodegarami, and Eagle Squadrons! Engage the enemy ships, go for the support ships and carriers, a little less AA fire coming from the enemy would be nice! Tekken and Tessen Squadrons go for the carriers! Engage!" Genda barked.

The sudden appearance of a combined Fusoan/Liberion Strike Package caught the Neuroi completely off guard. Fusoan Zeroes and fighter witches broke from their position above the strike package and raced to engage the Neuroi fighters, who promptly began to panic seeing thirty-six crack fighter pilots and fifteen crack fighter witches racing toward them to engage. Meanwhile Tsukubo, Sodegarami, and Eagle Squadrons, which was composed of sixteen B5N2s, sixteen torpedo bomber witches flying B5N2 Striker Units, fourteen TBD Devastators, and ten witches flying TBD Devastator Striker Units, went in low coming in to drop either their aerial torpedoes at the Neuroi Warships. While high above Tekken and Tessen Squadrons, composed of seventeen D3A1 "Val" Dive bombers and ten dive bomber witches flying D3A1 "Val" Dive Bomber Striker Units.

 **XXXX**

What ensued was pure carnage. Katana and Tanto Squadrons engaged the Neuroi Combat Air Patrol which was in a state of pure panic, as the Zeroes and Witches engaged them and a frantic furball erupted. "Katana 3 to Katana Leader! I got a kill! Look at that asshole drop!" The pilot of Katana 3 whooped as he shredded a Neuroi fighter with his guns.

"Amazing Katana three!" Katana leader barked.

"Score one for Pina!" A member of Tanto Squadron yelled to be heard over the din of battle as Pina pulled up and away from a Neuroi fighter which was tumbling out of control, missing its left wing.

"Katana Seven got one!" A witch in Tanto Squadron barked.

"Woohoo! This is becoming a honest to god turkey shoot! I say, how about we round em up and bag the bastards!" Tanto nine yelled as she pulled away from a flaming Neuroi fighter plane that began the long plunge toward the ocean.

The Neuroi fighters were being effortlessly slaughtered by the Fusoan Zeroes and Fighter Witches. Finally the Neuroi figured out what was going on, and launched an additional fifteen fighters to reinforce the CAP as the planes that were their we begging for help, as they were being outnumbered.

"Shit! Katana Twelve is down! Dammit!" The pilot of Katana ten yelled as the Zero that had once contained Katana Twelve had become a ball of fire.

 **XXXX**

With the Neuroi scrambling to launch more fighters to help the CAP against the crack Fusoan Fighter Pilots and Witches, who were shredding the Neuroi CAP with ease. The Neuroi ships thus had to fire every AA gun that could bear skyward. Tekken and Tessen Squadrons had no resistance from enemy fighters thanks to Katana and Tanto Squadrons. The Dive Bombers lined up their targets then nosed over and dove, going into a 450 mile an hour power dive. While the Torpedo Bombers came in low, going for various ships.

 **XXXX**

Meanwhile in the drink, Ensigns George Gay and Monica Spruance heard the roar of a lot of engines and promptly looked skyward and let out a cheer as Fusoan Fighters, Fighter Witches, Dive Bombers, Dive Bomber Witches, Torpedo Bombers, Torpedo Bomber Witches, and a Squadron of Liberion Torpedo Bombers and witches appeared. The formation broke apart, fighters and fighter witches racing toward the Neuroi CAP which were obviously in the process of panicking as some of the best carrier pilots in the world had appeared over the fleet they were supposed to be protecting. While the Fusoan Dive Bombers and dive bomber witches went after the ships putting their planes and strikers into power dives. The Torpedo Bombers and Torpedo Bomber Witches came in low and slow ready to drop their torpedoes, among them were Liberion TBDs sprinkled in with the Kates, same went for the Witches.

The Fusoan Fighters and Witches clashed with the Neuroi Fighters in a frantic fast-paced furball that the Neuroi quickly began to lose as some of the best damned Naval Fighter Pilots and Witches in the world clashed against battle hardened, but tired Neuroi Fighter pilots. It seemed that for every four or five planes the Neuroi would lose, the Fusoans would lose one plane only.

Then they heard the scream of dive bomber engines, and the flak began to be sent skyward with such intensity it seemed like it was going out of style.

 **XXXX**

"Nail the bastards on the head! Here we go!" A witch in Tessen Squadron barked as she released her bombs.

"Tekken Leader to Tessen two! You missed you baka!" Genda barked, surprised that the witch responsible had somehow managed to miss a wildly maneuvering _Storm Cloud_ -class, with both of her 250 kilogram bombs. Which was fairly impressive to say the least considering how _big_ the thing was.

Another witch dove on the carrier that Tessen Two had just missed, braving heavy, murderous flak she dropped both of her bombs. The first one landed directly next to the hull, of the carrier exploding and opening several seams in the hull of the carrier, the other one plunged into the bow of the ship and went four or five decks down before exploding; flames and smoke erupted from the flight deck, sending debris hurtling into the air. "DIRECT HIT! DIRECT HIT! NICE HIT TESSEN NINE!" Tessen two shouted as she saw the hit.

Three Vals dove on the carrier, which had barely enough time to purge the avgas lines and put up the dividers in the hangar deck. The Vals released their single 250 kilogram bombs. One landed among the AA emplacements along the portside and exploded, instantly silencing a large number of AA guns on that side as the AA gunners their were either killed directly by the explosion or by the shrapnel that ensued. The next Val that released its 250 kilogram bomb then pulled sharply out of the dive, the bomb it had dropped plunged into the ship amidships and landed on a fully fueled Neuroi Torpedo Bomber and exploded, secondaries began to convulse the ship as the planes in the amidships section of the sealed up hangar began to explode. The last Val dropped its bomb and scored a direct hit on the bridge, smoke and flames exploded from the entirety of the island.

"OH FUCK YEAH! Bullseye! Bullseye! Bullseye! Nice hits Tekken 4, 8, and Leader! That thing is toast!" A witch with the callsign of Tessen ten resounded as she pulled up out of her dive, and selected a new target, a frantically moving, _Silent_ -class Destroyer. "Scratch one flattop!" Tessen Leader whooped.

Seeing that the _Storm Cloud_ -class was toast, as it was burning badly, with secondary explosions were ripping the midsection of the carrier apart.

Tessen ten lined up the destroyer and then dove on it. The _Silent_ opened fire with every available AA gun. Yet it was for naught, the witch with the callsign Tessen Ten released her bombs. The two 250 kilogram bombs plunged into the ship, and exploded. Both bombs ripped the superstructure apart and blew out a ten foot wide hole in the side of the Destroyer, smoke and flames quickly began to climb skyward as the Destroyer came to a stuttering halt, and began listing immediately to port. "You nailed that sonofabitch! Nice work Tessen Ten!" A Val dive bomber pilot barked.

As if to insult the sinking Destroyer, two Vals and a witch lined up on it and dove. Both planes released their bombs, and both hit, the first bomb slammed into the aft main battery turret, causing a large explosion that ripped the aft turret right off its mount and tossed it on to its side, while also breaking the keel and causing a massive fire to erupt to life on the stern. The other bomb plunged into the superstructure where it exploded, causing smoke and fire to erupt out of the portholes of the superstructure as fire took hold. The two bombs from the witch, slammed into the ship in the bow and the bridge, large explosions erupted to life, the bridge was instantly demolished and reduced to unrecognizable and twisted ,metal, the other one plunged all the way down to the bilge where it exploded, blowing a large ten foot hole in the bottom of the ship.

Another Neuroi destroyer, a _Hunter_ -class this time around was in a tight right turn was lined up on by three dive bomber witches, who dove on the destroyer. The flak guns opened fire trying to hit the witches and the destroyer heeled sharply over into a left turn. The witches released their bombs, and the results were spectacular, with two near misses and four direct hits that left the destroyer burning from amidships aft, the engines were destroyed and the hull was ruptured in numerous locations.

The remaining dive bombers and witches then had a field day with a _Exterminator_ -class Heavy Cruiser. Straddling it multiple times and scoring at least eight hits, demolishing the ship in its entirety, leaving it a burning, listing, dead in the water wreck of a ship. As Tessen and Tekken Squadrons then began to leave the area, just as the torpedo bombers launched their attacks.

 **XXXX**

Ten Kates and four Torpedo bomber witches targeted the _Ravager_ -class Fast Battleship that was closest to the Carrier that had just been pasted. They broke into two groups, with five Kates and two torpedo bomber witches coming from port, while the other five Kates and two torpedo bomber witches came in from Starboard. A Hammer and Anvil attack, no matter which way the Battleship turned it was going to catch at least one torpedo or as many as nine torpedoes. However one torpedo bomber witch, with the name of Midoriko Sono was in the section approaching the Battleship from starboard.

Midoriko had the magic ability of eruption and her familiar is that of a falcon. The Battleship turned hard, showing the broadside to Midoriko's group of TBs. The Torpedo Bombers released their torpedoes. "Torps away! Come on! Tsukubo two through eleven and Sodegarami three through five! Let's run like hell!" Midoriko barked as she pulled up and then began to turn away. Nine torpedoes missed the Battleship, seven didn't. Seven towering columns of water erupted and went skyward, the battleship began to list immediately several fires had erupted to life on deck, the ship kept going but they had reduced their speed greatly to avoid losing whatever redundant buoyancy that remained in the ship.

"HELL YES! One Battleship crippled! Chew on that you Neuroi Bastards!" Midoriko's wingman yelled, as the planes that no longer had torpedoes began to run like hell for home.

Two more torpedo bomber witches closed in on the carrier and dropped their torpedoes, the four Fusoan Torpedoes worked as designed, each one ripping a fifteen foot wide hole in the side of the ship, all the while she burned amidships. The witches ran for home as well.

The _Wraith_ -class suddenly found itself in a metric shit ton of trouble as a grand total of eight witches approached it from the front, four on the portside and four from the starboard side, as if to really screw them over. Two TBDs approached from the starboard side aft.

The Witches and TBDs released their torpedoes the Light Cruiser Captain then showed some pretty fancy footwork with a crash stop then going into reverse, the torpedoes knifed through the water and only one Fusoan Torpedo hit and amputated the bow, while both Liberion Torpedoes actually hit, but were duds and didn't explode (got to really hate enemy captains who actually know what they are doing, eh?). While the Light Cruiser was beginning to move forward again at a greatly reduced speed more trouble approached from the portside beam on. The remaining three Torpedo Bomber witches and two Kates. The captain ordered that the abandon ship order be given. Which turned out to be a good thing he did.

The Witches and Kates released their torpedoes, eight Type 91s knifed through the water, and impacted the Light Cruiser, the number of explosions that convulsed the ship practically ripped it in two.

"Scratch one Light Cruiser!" A witch barked as the last three torpedo bomber witches pulled up and away and began to run like hell. The TBDs struggling to keep up with them.

Then just as quickly as it had began, the Fusoan and Liberion planes left, leaving a aircraft carrier in shambles, one light cruiser sinking fast, one destroyer sinking fast, a destroyer struggling to remaining afloat, and a battleship dead in the water and listing heavily. "Tekken Leader to all squadrons, one carrier burning, two destroyers sinking, a light cruiser sunk, and a battleship severely crippled! Time to go home!" Genda said as he looked back at the enemy fleet, where four large columns of thick black smoke were climbing skyward. While the strike had suffered losses, they hadn't been murderous well for the Fusoans at least. With only a Val, four Kates, two Zeroes, and nine TBDs lost. Among the TBDs lost was Bald Eagle Leader. The losses for the Witches were none whatsoever for the Fusoans but fairly hefty for the Liberions. With six witches flying TBDs had been shot down and killed, two others were being supported by Fusoan Torpedo Bomber Witches as they retreated, they would both survive but would miss the rest of '42 recovering, somehow two Witches had survived without a scratch. The TBDs that would return to the _Enterprise_ would be simply shot to hell.

 **XXXX**

On board the YIRS _Dunbal_ or _Dark Stone_ it was pure chaos, sailors were running around every which way, trying to get the fires under control, do counter flooding, and get the auxiliary conn going. The _Dunbal_ was a member of the _Atmaor_ -class of Supercarrier or in english a _Elder Sea_ -class Supercarrier. To make matters worse for the large floating city, most of the command staff had been killed when a Human dive bomber had dropped its bomb right on top of the Island, practically demolishing it and killing the majority of those who were inside.

The highest surviving ranking officer, the first officer ordered that CO2 was pumped into the amidships section of the hangar deck to put the fire out. However while it worked, the amidships section of the hangar had been heavily damaged by the fire, as had the supports for the flight deck above that section.

The flight deck amidships groaned ominously it was the only warning they had before roughly a 60 square foot section of the flight deck amidships collapsed into the hangar deck, killing thirty Neuroi sailors who had been checking to see what the extent of the damage was. What was worse was that the carrier that had taken the brunt of the first attack that the Fusoans would make in the morning had been the carrier that had been keeping the CAP up. Now the Neuroi were scrambling sending fully fueled and armed strike planes back below decks and bringing fighters up to the flight deck in order to launch them to get a CAP up. The CAP that the Neuroi put up was a double CAP nearly sixty fighters.

The first officer of the _Dunbal_ quickly came to the conclusion that his ship was no longer fit for combat, and thus after getting permission the carrier turned away and left the carrier group the _Silent_ -class Destroyer YIRS _Chitamriel_ or in English _Changed Dawn Beauty_ escorting it. As this was happening, another ship. This one a Submarine and a member of the Liberion Navy was about to make an attack of its own.

 **XXXX**

The Liberion Submarine USS _Nautilus_ SS-168 was at periscope depth, having spotted the enemy carrier force and was closing in to make an attack of her own. The large _V_ -class Submarine set herself up in perfect perpendicular firing position, and lined up her target, one of the _Hawkeye_ -class Heavy Cruisers. She then fired two torpedoes, or tried. One of the tubes misfired, and thus didn't unleash a Liberion made Mark XIV Torpedo. The other Mark XIV Torpedo went screaming toward its target, and missed by a distance of twenty feet.

However the attack was threatening enough that the ship behind the _Hawkeye_ -class. A _Hunter_ -class ASW destroyer, named YIRS _Bella_ or in English _Storm_. Would devote the better part of an hour trying to kill the Liberion Submarine with depth charges and a particularly nasty Neuroi ASW Weapon; ASW Rockets. The _Nautilus_ took no chances and dove to 150 feet. However, this incident would have greater consequences later that would have a major impact on the events in the battle.

 **XXXX**

Less than twenty minutes passed before a Neuroi fighter pilot looked to his right, from the general direction of the enemy carriers and spotted a very large force of Human Fighter, Dive Bombers, Torpedo Planes, Fighter Witches, Dive Bomber Witches, and Torpedo Bomber Witches. The force was a large scale strike package that was well coordinated, the planes and witches were from the IFN _Soryu_ , IFN _Kaga_ , and IFN _Akagi_ ; the force contained 68 Zero Fighters, 52 Val Dive Bombers, 59 Kate Torpedo Planes, 58 Fighter Witches, 36 Dive Bomber Witches, and 46 Torpedo Bomber Witches.

The reaction was textbook from the Neuroi fleet, all ships began evasive maneuvers hoping to throw the aim of enemy planes and witches off. They launched more fighters, but only managed to launch twelve more fighters before they were forced to stop, and purge Avgas lines just to make sure that they didn't go blow up into large fireballs if they were hit.

All the Neuroi fleet could do now was pray on how events would play out. For the storm was upon them.

 **XXXX**

The commander of the strike on the enemy fleet was Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, veteran of several battles against the Neuroi. Waggled his wings for all sections to commence the attack.

The Neuroi CAP raced to intercept the massive strike force bearing down on a large section of escorts which had dashed forward to send up as much AA fire as possible against the large force. The Neuroi CAP barely got halfway there before an absolutely hellish First Neuroi War style aerial brawl. Tracers and Neuroi bolts were flying every where, however the Fusoans had the edge in skill and numbers. Enemy fighters began to fall from the sky on mass.

However above the escort ships and the Supercarrier YIRS _Gondorin Star_ or in English _North Star_ , despite a hail of AA fire. The Fusoan Planes and witches started their attack runs.

 ***BGM-Sabaton-Midway***

"Holy fuck! Jesus! Tight flying here!" A Val pilot yelled as he barely avoided two collisions with other Vals and a Witch. Numerous mid-air collisions almost occurred due to the tight flying. However despite all of the AA fire being thrown up by the Fusoans pressed on.

The first six Vals and four Witches dropped their payloads without hitting anything. Yet the Neuroi didn't get lucky with the next section of dive bombers. The next group of Vals and Witches numbering ten and eighteen respectively scored at least a dozen hits on a _Warlock_ -class Battlecruiser. "Oh fuck yes! This going to be a turkey shoot!" A dive bomber witch shouted with glee as several more ships were hit in rapid succession by numerous bomb hits. One _Ravager_ -class took seven bombs and had everything amidships aft demolished, a _Exterminator_ -class took four hits and had multiple fires burning on it; yet the even though most of the escorts were hit by the dive bombers the _Storm Cloud_ that had the unfortunate luck to be too close to the defending escort ships, became it seemed, almost every single Fusoan Strike Plane's ordinance magnet. The Carrier was pasted really badly by dive bombers and dive bomber witches hitting the thing at least twenty-two times maybe as many as forty 551 pound bomb hits and suffered nearly fifty near misses. The Carrier was burning fiercely from stem to stern. By the time that the Dive Bombers and Dive Bomber Witches had turned for home to let the torpedo bombers have their fun. A large number of the Neuroi Escorts and a single carrier were helpless stationary wrecks, the only ships that could still maneuver were fifteen destroyers, a single _Exterminator_ -class Heavy Cruiser, both _Hawkeye_ -class Heavy Cruisers, a _Ravager_ -class Fast Battleship, and a _Warlock_ -class Battleship; yet every single warship among the escorts save the destroyers had taken at least one bomb hit.

 **XXXX**

The Neuroi escorts that were stationary because of damage, began to abandon ship as the Torpedo Bombers attacked, what ensued was a massacre among the Neuroi ships. All of the stationary ships had at least two torpedoes put into them, and several of wildly maneuvering destroyers were hit as well. Meanwhile the Fusoan Fighters and Fighter Witches, having finished wiping out the CAP, began to strafe the enemy ships, racking them 7.7mm, 13mm, and 20mm gunfire.

The Carrier that had been hit by the Dive Bombers which was burning heavily and beginning to list to port was hit by at least six torpedoes in the portside, the carrier quickly rolled on her side and slipped beneath the waves. "Scratch One Flattop!" A Torpedo Bomber Witch called out as the carrier sank.

 ***BGM Ends***

 **XXXX**

In sum total the second Fusoan Strike of the Morning not only got away completely unscathed, but had completely decimated the escort screen for the Neuroi task force. Sinking two destroyers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, and a Supercarrier. Plus damaging all the remaining escort ships with at least one bomb hit or torpedo hit.

The Neuroi were scrambling to launch more CAP fighters, in the meantime it became obvious that there was several enemy aircraft carriers out their. Yet the Neuroi were reeling, they had lost two Supercarriers both of which had gone down with a large amount of their air wing aboard. The CAP of thirty Neuroi Fighters had just succeeded in getting to patrol altitudes when more trouble appeared on the horizon. Twelve TBD-1 Devastator Torpedo Bombers and Ten Torpedo Bomber Witches of VF-3, escorted by five F4F-4 Wildcat Fighters and one Witch flying F4F-4 Wildcat Striker Units.

 **XXXX**

The commanding officer of the Fusoan Submarine _I-168_ , couldn't believe his luck. He had found a debris trail and was following it at the surface, unaware that he was tracking down a whale of a ship. His plan was to get ahead of the wounded Neuroi ship, and then sink it.

The hunt was on.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: Alright, that chapter is now complete! We are rapidly reaching the end of the story. For in our next chapter, we see the first combat use of the Thatch Weave, the last Liberion Torpedo Bomber Attack of the Battle for Midway, and to cap it all off, five minutes that changed the course of the 2nd Neuroi War. All in the next thrilling chapter of Strike Witches: The Battle for Midway: "Dive bombers, diving directly above us!"**


	6. Dive bombers, diving directly above us!

**A/N: We are rapidly approaching the end of this little fic! For now it is time for VT-3 and VF-3 to make their appearance. With hot on the heels of their attack, the Five Minutes that changed the World.**

 **XXXX**

The last of the Liberion Torpedo Squadrons, VT-3 was the only Liberion Torpedo Bomber Squadron that did not get separated from its fighter escort which was VF-3, sadly the escort was light. Composed of five Wildcat Fighters and one Witch flying F4F-4 Wildcat Striker Units. However right behind the TBDs and fighters was VB-3 and VS-5, they were heading right for the Neuroi Carrier Fleet.

VF-3 was commanded by a witch, Lieutenant Commander Jane S. Thach, she was seventeen years old with brown eyes and black hair. Her familiar was that of a Black Grey Wolf (Black Wolves occur due to a genetic mutation, like a White Tiger) her magic ability is Super Strength, the weapon that she carries is a twin .30 AN/M2 Machine Gun Mount.

"Badger Four to Badger leader. Badger Four to Badger Leader. Ma'am, remember how Airman Ramos said that whenever Neuroi are around his hair frizzles?" The pilot of Badger Four, Lieutenant Jack Reid said.

"Yeah, I do remember that, so what's up Lieutenant?" Jane asked.

"Take a look at Badger Three and you will see why." Reid replied with a note of a snicker.

Wondering what it was up, Jane glanced into Badger Three's cockpit and had to hold back a laugh. Airman Ramos was scratching his head furiously, and Jane had thought that Ramos had been joking, but apparently it was true and he had _not_ been joking. "Well hot damn and here I thought he was kidding." Jane said.

"Well and now you know!" Reid replied actually sounding Jovial at the fact that Airman Ramos's hair was frizzling, it must meant that they were close to finding the enemy fleet.

 **XXXX**

Sadly for the USS _Hornet_ CV-8, her problems with coordinating her air group was not over yet. VF-8, composed of 10 F4F-4 Wildcat Fighters and six Witches flying F4F-4 Wildcat Striker Units, with crude navigation as well as ship movements, didn't find the _Hornet_ however they did find the _Akagi_ which was in the process of recovering planes from her first attack against the enemy fleet. Four Wildcats and two witches managed to land safely but six had to ditch as did four Witches. The F4F-4s from fuel exhaustion and the witches from a magic exhaustion. One Wildcat pilot was killed during the ditchings. However the Fusoan Destroyers were on the job and quickly fished the remaining pilots and witches out of the drink. They would be returned to the _Hornet_ by either that afternoon or tomorrow by the IFN _Araike_.

 **XXXX**

Meanwhile with VB-8 the dive bombers pushed doggedly on; however their fuel level was getting critical, the squadrons were carrying 1000lb AP bombs. However with fuel critical it looked like the squadron was going to have to ditch. Yet, lady luck took notice of the plight that the dive bombers were in, for VB-8 encountered a Witch flying in PBY Catalina Striker Units, she gave VB-8 directions to Midway Island. The dive bombers turned south heading for Midway and for safety. Then Lt. Alfred Tucker picked up something that he was very grateful for, the homing signal for the combat planes from the _Hornet_ to follow to get home safely. Lt. Tucker broke away from the formation with his section of dive bombers and witches, they would later return safely to the _Hornet_.

The other 14 SBDs and 10 Dive Bomber Witches pressed on toward Midway Island. However on the way. "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Ensign Guillory! My engine has quit, I am going in the drink!" Ensign Guillory barked as he engine quit the prop coming to a stop.

"Godammit!" Lt. Cmdr Johnson snapped as he watched Ensign Guillory's plane do a belly landing in the drink.

A scant two minutes later, another Mayday call went out as another SBD ran out of fuel and had to ditch as well.

The decision was made somewhere along the way, so to lighten the load and streamline the aircraft and striker units; VB-8 ditched their 1000lb bombs. However it seemed that bad luck had the _Hornet_ air wing by the balls and was just refusing to let go; for once the remaining planes and witches got to Midway Island, due to the direction they were coming from. AA fire met them, and the defenders managed to damage three SBDs and a Witch's striker units before they realized their mistake, and another SBD had to ditch in the Lagoon because of Fuel Exhaustion and two witches ditched in the Lagoon as well due to magic exhaustion. The remaining dive bombers and witches landed safely, thankfully the SBD-3s that had been damaged where repairable as was the striker unit that was damaged.

 **XXXX**

 _1000 Hours_

Around the time that VB-8 is arriving over Midway; VT-3 with its fighter escort spots the enemy carrier fleet. "Wow! The Fusoans really worked that fleet over! However it is our turn! All TBDs and Witches follow me in!" Lt. Cmdr. Lance "Lem" Massey barked and for the fifth time that day brave Liberion Torpedo Bomber Crews and Witches flew right into the jaws of death and into the mouth of hell itself.

"Here comes the CAP! Alright boys, let's see how many we can get in the first pass!" Jane barked, as she went into a dive she had a thought _I really wish that Katherine and the rest of the Squadron was here, no way in hell we can fight off seventeen enemy planes, not with the number of fighters we got._

Nevertheless the Neuroi CAP was making a beeline for the TBDs and Torpedo Bomber Witches. Jane lined one up and and depressed the dual buttons and the twin .30 AN/M2 guns roared, and she literally walked tracers across the enemy plane, it promptly exploded into a ball of fire and came apart in the mid-air.

"Score one for Thach!" Airman Ramos said.

Ten Neuroi fighters broke off to engage the Wildcats which had came out of nowhere. A furball instantly erupted, on the first past a Neuroi La-11N got hooked on the rear of a Wildcat flown by Ensign Basset. "Shit! GAH! Somebody help me! I can't get this bastard off me!" He cried as the Neuroi La-11N riddled his fighter bolts, the amount of punishment coming from the Fang was too much, and the engine caught fire and the plane went into a death dive.

"Crap! Badger leader! I could use a little help here!" Yelled Ensign R. A. M. Dibbs, as he jinked every which way that was physically possible to avoid Neuroi bolts.

"Hang on Dibbs! I am coming! Let's use the Beam Defense Position on this bastard!" Jane barked.

"Right!" Dibbs replied. The Beam Defense Position which would later be called the Thach Weave involved two fighters or Witches flying roughly 800 feet apart, when an enemy plane got the tail of one of the planes, or witches, they would turn toward each other; thus giving the wingman either an easy kill or forcing the enemy to break-off and run like hell.

The Neuroi fighter was so focused on Dibbs's Wildcat that when Dibbs began his turn and Thach turned in toward Dibbs, the Neuroi fighter had no idea that Thach was there; until that is multiple rounds from Thach's twin .30 caliber Machine gun ripped into the fighter and it became a ball of fire that quickly began to do an aileron roll as it plunged toward the sea. "Thanks, skipper! You really saved my bacon!" Dibbs said as the fighter on his six erupted into flames.

"No problem Dibbs." Thach said.

Suddenly she heard Ramos screaming over the radio. "Ramos! Ramos! What happened?! Ramos!" Jane barked, beginning to fear for one her pilots.

She was relieved at first when she heard Ramos begin to speak to her however as he did so he was in a lot of pain, however that relief turned to horror. "Skipper, I've been hit. A burst of beams came into my cockpit and lit a fuel line. I've been severely burned, I am not sure if I can keep her flying." He said through gritted teeth.

"Ramos, if you are going to remain awake and not pass out from the pain; please keep talking to me, okay you hear me? Once we are able to disengage I will be your wingman for the trip home? Got it! So quickly get into a cloud!" Thach barked.

"Yes ma'am I will try to stay awake; it hurts so badly." Ramos replied.

However thanks to Jane Thach's "Beam Defense Position" the Liberion F4F-4 Wildcats and Jane smoked seven Neuroi fighters and damaged three others. However with the Wildcats in a chaotic fight for their lives, Neuroi fighters dove for the TBDs. One Wildcat flown by Ensign Daniel Sweedy flew in with the TBDs to provide escort, his wingman followed him Airman 1st Class Tom Cheek.

In the chaos that ensued, both Sheedy and Cheek managed to bag a Fang. However the duo was quickly overwhelmed and put on the defensive. However Sheedy being chased by a Fang, put his fighter into a power dive, however Sheedy pulled up sharply at the last second the pursuing Fang slammed nose first into the water. Meanwhile with the chaotic fight at altitude, Jane managed to get four kills and a probable.

This came as a very rude surprise for the Neuroi fighters who for the most part had been used to free easy kills. Yet the sad part about it was, despite the fact that the pilots of VF-3 where very skilled and that they had a fighter witch among their number as well, they were heavily outnumbered by enemy fighters by 4 to 1. With VF-3 fighting for their lives, VT-3 was left exposed; some of the CAP fighters broke off engagement with VF-3 and dove down to engage VT-3.

Yet, with enemy torpedo bombers approaching, the Neuroi ships were forced to go evasive once again.

 **XXXX**

Bombing Squadron 6 and Scouting Squadron 6 from the USS _Enterprise_ was being lead by Lt. Cmdr. Clarence "Wade" McClusky, a 40-Year Old Buffalo New York native. Clarence usually flew a F4F-4 Wildcat Fighter, not a SBD-3 Dive Bomber. Thus he was leading Bombing Squadron 6 and Scouting Squadron 6 like bat outta hell. Thanks to him normally being a fighter pilot he had the mindset of the one that is gonna hit first is the one that is gonna win, as such he was leading the squadron at 190 knots or 218 miles per hour, SBD Dive Bombers usually flew at 160 knots or 184 miles per hour.

However when the Dive Bombers arrived to where the Neuroi Carriers were supposed to be, all that was there was just the open ocean. When suddenly McClusky's Radioman/Gunner spotted something. "Hey Cmdr. McClusky! What does that look like too you?" He said pointing something out. McClusky looked and it appeared to be a miniature ship on the Ocean's surface.

That ship on the ocean's surface was the YIRS _Bella_ ; which having given up its hunt for the _Nautilus_ after failing in sinking her was now making a beeline back for the enemy carrier fleet.

"That looks like a Neuroi Destroyer! He's going somewhere in a damn hurry too!" McClusky exclaimed. "Yeah he sure is going somewhere in a mighty damn big hurry, he ain't zigzagging? What do we do Skipper?" The Radioman/Gunner asked.

"Let's follow him, he might be running back to the carrier fleet." McClusky said, and thus VB-6 and VS-6 changed direction, to go follow the enemy destroyer. Little did McClusky and the rest of VB-6 and VS-6 know, but the choice to follow that enemy destroyer was going to pay off big time.

 **XXXX**

VT-3 was in trouble, with the Wildcats being kept busy by the enemy CAP which had them outnumbered to begin with. The torpedo bombers were helpless. Neuroi fighters went after them.

"HELP! This is Maple 11! I have one on me! I can't shake him! I can't-MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! This is Maple 11 we're going down!" The pilot of Maple 11, Ensign Wesley Osmus cried as his Devastator caught fire and then began its plunge toward the ocean. Osmus would succeed in bailing out of the plane, but would be picked up by the Neuroi, sadly his tail gunner Ensign Benjamin Dodson Jr. never got out of the plane.

Yet VT-3 had managed to close the majority of the gap between the enemy carriers and the squadron, even worse some of the Neuroi planes attacking were having problems with their cannon Neuroi Bolt emitters and thus were down to the machine gun bolt emitters. VT-3 split into two groups and went after one of the _Terminator_ -class Fleet Carriers, as a result the last nine enemy fighters on top cover dove to the deck to engage the TBDs. In the ensuing chaos, 10 TBDs were blasted out of the sky as was four witches; among the dead was Lt. Cmdr. Massey, and of the five torpedoes that VT-3 dropped they either missed or were duds.

However the Neuroi CAP fighters, were chasing after TBDs and were not climbing back up to their patrol altitudes going after free kills, everyone in the Neuroi Carrier fleet was focusing on VT-3 as it made its escape and thus _nobody_ was looking _up_ were the real threat to the Carriers was! Another thing was that the constant air attacks meant that the rearming and then the counter re-arming had been totally disrupted which had left the hangars in complete and utter disarray, ordinance was strewn about the hangar decks on all carriers with no time to move said ordinance back to the magazines. The Neuroi Aircraft Carriers were powder kegs waiting to ignite and become a maelstrom of fire and death on each Carrier.

Enter the torchbearers.

 **XXXX**

 _June 4th, 1942_

 _1025 Hours_ (Hell of a morning, right?)

The Neuroi fighters were on the deck chasing VT-3 when suddenly on the horizon moving in like a bat out of hell straight for the carriers appeared Bombing Squadron Six also known as the "Black Rams" however none of the lookouts were paying attention. Plus with no fighters to hinder them the Dive Bombers approached unhindered toward the enemy carriers, the pilots and witches preparing to nose over and put themselves into a 500 mile an hour, 70-degree, power dive toward the enemy carriers.

"Holy crap! Look at the size of those things!" SBD Dive Bomber pilot Dusty Kleiss said as he spotted the Neuroi Carriers and his target, one of the _Storm Cloud_ -class Supercarriers, the two Carriers that was closest to the Liberion Dive Bombers where the _Storm Cloud_ -class Super Carriers while farther away was the two _Terminator_ -class Fleet Carriers.

The best part beside the fact that they had achieved complete and total surprise but the enemy carriers were turning into the wind, which was perfect for the Dive Bombers. A target that is headed into the wind means that it is easier for a dive bomber and bomb to stay on target. Whereas a crosswind could throw both a dive bomber and bomb off target.

McClusky gave instructions for one squadron to attack one _Storm Cloud_ -class and for the other squadron to attack the other. However as the planes began their dives there was confusion initially, as everyone dove on the same target.

 **XXXX**

On board the YIRS _Sharpened Claw_ ; the first indication that the Neuroi on the carriers had that they were really in the shit was when a lookout heard something looked up and promptly yelled as loud as he could. "DIVE BOMBERS, DIVING DIRECTLY ABOVE US!"

But by then it was too late.

 **XXXX**

With nearly 30 Dive Bombers and 10 Witches diving on one aircraft carrier alone, there were almost a few midair collisions. However one the squadron commanders Lt. Richard Best to break off his attack on the _Sharpened Claw_ and attack the other _Storm Cloud_ -class Aircraft Carrier along with two other planes and a witch.

Well, they say that it is fun to be pilot of a dive bomber, but it is even more fun to be the tail gunner of a Liberion Dive Bomber; the reason being is that they have to go through the dive facing backwards. One such tail gunner was Donald L. Hoff; his pilot Lt. James Dexter thanks to almost hitting a witch put his plane into a much steeper dive than he had planned. Instead of putting his SBD into a 70 or 80 degree dive, he wound up putting it past the 90 degree mark.

The result was that Hoff was pinned to his seat, when suddenly his ammunition belts for his .30 Caliber AN/M2 Machine Gun begin to fall out of the plane, the ammo just started to come out of the can like a big old snake, all he could do was just hang on to it, because it was a 1,000 round ammunition belt, the last thing that was needed was having the damn thing wrap itself around the horizontal stabilizer or vertical stabilizer.

Just as the altimeter in the cockpit hit 1500 feet, Lt. Dexter punched the bomb release, however the bomb missed.

"Raven Leader to Raven Six! You missed damnit!" McClusky barked.

"Sorry sir!" Dexter replied, he then sighed as he guided his SBD back home. "You alright back there Hoff?" Dexter asked.

"Oh just peachy. I _don't_ ever want to do that again!" Hoff replied.

The next up was a young witch by the name of Janice Hopkins, she had blue eyes and black hair, her familiar is that of a raven and her magic ability is foresight, and she was also the _youngest_ witch in the entire squadron at only 11 years old but she dives as steeply as the rest of them, 13,000 feet straight down. Hopkins would say later in an interview that it took around twenty seconds to go from your starting altitude to your release point, and in that period of time their would be three or four other planes and witches diving at the same time, so you could see where bombs were hitting or missing and adjust accordingly!

She watched as her two wingmen both witches as well dropped their bombs, and both missed. "GODAMMIT!" The Witch flying as Raven 32 growled as she watched two towering columns of spray erupt near the carrier.

Then the next person to punch the bomb release was an SBD pilot by the name of Earl Gallaher; he nailed put his 500lb AP bomb right on top of a parked Neuroi La-11N. "BULL'S-EYE! BULL'SEYE! YEEEEHOOOOO!" Earl whooped as he pulled out sharply.

The next pilot to nose over was Dusty Kleiss and he was going to do what he could to hit the target. That big old yellow deer emblazoned on the flight deck near the bow. He waited until the last possible second to release his bomb, punching the release at 1000 feet. His bomb hit right below the belly of the deer, and plunged deep into the ship where it exploded, fire and flames erupted from the sides of the enclosed hangar and up from the flight deck. While that happened Kleiss slammed his plane into a thundering 9-gee pullout, coming out of his dive right at wavetop level.

Then moments later, two more bombs these 1,000lb bombs dropped by a witch by the name of Aelita Gatsby slammed into the _Screaming Claw_.

"Raven Thirty here! Lt. Dexter I am going to follow you out!" Aelita barked. Aelita was a 18 year old witch from New York City, New York; she held the rank of Ensign and her familiar is a Coyote, while her magic ability is ballistic stabilization as such she is using not the normal machine gun but instead is using a M1 Carbine.

The radio crackled again this time it was a different pilot. "Scratch one flattop! Sweet Mother, we caught them cold!" A SBD pilot barked.

Suddenly Lt. Dexter made a sharp turn to his left to avoid an enemy heavy cruiser. Aelita followed the dive bomber as it began to make its escape from the enemy carrier fleet and back to safety that was the Big E. As they were doing so they started jinxing to make the plane a harder target to hit.

However that Heavy Cruiser was pissed, because suddenly the main guns opened fire, Neuroi bolts as big around as a palm tree raced out in front of them. Producing towering columns of water in an attempt to get the attention of the CAP. Regardless these columns of water were deadly obstacles; because if they flew into one doing two hundred to two hundred fifty miles per hour it would be like slamming into cement. Suddenly one bolt landed right below Hoff's SBD; and sent the SBD roughly roughly forty or fifty feet in the air; Aelita wasn't so lucky as pulled up sharply but her right striker unit clipped the water column and ripped it right in half.

"Dexter swing around! Swing around! Raven Thirty is in major trouble! She clipped a water column!" Hoff yelled as Aelita began to lose altitude quickly. "Hang on!" Dexter barked, as he pitched his SBD hard around. Hoff jumped on the radio. "Aelita if you can hear me we are going to try and get you in midair!" Hoff barked as he put his defensive gun away, storing it in his compartment, while a very risky move Hoff would be _damned_ if they didn't try and rescue Aelita.

"Coming around! Try and stay in the air a little longer Raven 30!" Dexter barked into his radio.

"I am trying! But I am beginning to stall!" Aelita said frantically her voice getting desperate and panicky, she didn't want to die.

"James! Please for the love of god! Match our speed and lower our altitude! I will pull her into the plane!" Donald barked as the SBD came around.

"Got it! But if I screw this up! We are going for a swim!" James replied, as the SBD chopped power and lowered its altitude. They were very close to the deck, and rapidly approaching stall speed.

"Aelita! Take my hand! Take my hand!" Hoff exclaimed as he got somewhat out of his seat and began to frantically reach up. It took exactly three tries. Just before the third try Dexter spoke up. "Donald! You don't grab her this time around I am going to have to apply full throttle! We are near as dammit to stall speed!" He barked.

 _Damn! Damn! Damn!_ Donald thought as he heard that. "Come on Alieta! You can do it!" Donald encouraged as they began the third and final try that they would get at this. Well turns out third time's a charm. For Aelita managed to grab Donald's arm, and Donald heaved and pulled her into the SBD and to safety just as her left striker unit quit. "Dexter! I got her! Get us the fuck out of here!" Donald roared.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Dexter said as he applied full throttle to the SBD's engine. "You alright?" Hoff asked as he held Aelita close.

"Yes, I am, now. Thanks Donald for saving me. I owe you one." Aelita said as she began to sob slightly, grateful beyond words that she was still alive.

"I know that you would have tried to do same with me and Dexter." Hoff said, with a knowing wink.

 **XXXX**

Suddenly to make matters even worse for the Neuroi, VB-3 from the _Yorktown_ appeared and instantly went after one of the _Terminator_ -class fleet carriers, despite the fact that four of the SBDs and a pair of witches had lost their bombs thanks to faulty electronic arming switches, including the Squadron commander, Lieutenant Commander Maxwell Leslie, despite that fact all of the planes and witches dove. "Ram it home girls! Ram it home!" An SBD pilot barked as the SBDs and Witches entered their dives and began to drop ordnance. "Cream the bastards!" One pilot barked.

Suddenly a 500lb bomb landed amidships on the _Terminator_ -class. "Bulls-eye Helen Five! Bulls-eye!" A Witch barked as an SBD put his 1000lb right into the carrier, just aft of the island, the bomb wound up in the hangar deck and detonated which began a long set of secondary explosions began. The enemy carrier had barely stopped shaking from the first hit when a witch planted a pair of 500lb bombs right on the flight deck, this flames and smoke exploded outward from the enclosed hangar deck.

"Cmdr. Leslie! I got a hit! Right down their throat! On a river, look at that bastard burn!" A witch exclaimed as the carrier that she had hit which was already burning began to burn even more intensely.

Seconds later, another SBD came in and dropped its bomb which landed near the stern right near the arresting wire system, fire and smoke exploded upward as a the bomb detonated and decimated the arresting wire system. "Beautiful Helen Three and Eleven, dead center!" A witch barked

 **XXXX**

At the other _Storm Cloud_ -class the YIRS _Howling Claw_ , the carrier was wildly maneuvering trying to avoid to take a direct hit. However while they managed to avoid the first two SBDs and the one Witch. Succeeding in dodging four bombs, the next pilot Lt. Rich Best, was possibly the best Dive Bomber Pilot in the entire Liberion fleet.

"My god! We caught them flat-footed! No fighters just carriers getting ready to launch strike fighters!" Best exclaimed over the radio, he then punched the bomb release. His bomb, a 1,000lb AP time-delayed bomb punched through the flight deck and wound up right among a squadron of fully armed and fueled torpedo bombers. The resulting explosion was so great, that a large section of the flight deck was sent hurtling skyward reaching nearly 30 feet in the air, before slamming back into the ocean. Secondary explosions began to rip the carrier apart. "Sweet Mary-Anne! How did we get so lucky?" A witch asked as she pulled up from her run at an enemy carrier.

However the Neuroi were a little lucky, as VS-5 failed to score any hits on the other _Terminator_ -class Fleet Carrier, this would come to bite the Allies in the ass later.

 **XXXX**

Besides the Liberion Dive Bomber crews and witches who took part in the attack itself. Two other Liberions had a front row seat to the destruction of three enemy Aircraft Carriers in a matter of minutes. They were Ensign George Gay and Ensign Monica Spruance. "They did it. Hot damn! THEY DID IT!" Monica exclaimed as she cheered as the dive bombers and witches pasted the enemy carriers.

"Hell yes they did! Thank the lord they did it! I don't believe it! The tables have turned against the Neuroi! We have slaughtered them!" George exclaimed with a whoop of joy as the enemy carriers that had been hit were being consumed by fire and wracked by explosions.

 **XXXX**

As the SBDs and Witches from VB-3 climbed away from the fleet and began to run for home, while VB-6 and VS-6 which had focused on the Supercarriers and left them in ruins had already left. Lt. Cmdr. Leslie looked back at the enemy carriers. "Helen leader to squadron, three enemy carriers burning" he paused as large secondary explosion convulsed the _Howling Claw_ , he then grinned and continued "Time to go home."

In just a matter of moments, the fortunes of war had just been dramatically reversed the Neuroi were suddenly vastly outnumbered in terms of ships, planes, and men.

 **XXXX**

 _1058 Hours_

However the Neuroi did not stand idle nor did they retreat despite the fact that they were greatly outnumbered by the Allies now. Instead they turned toward the enemy carrier fleet and prepared to launch a counterstrike against the allies. For now the _Kraken_ -class Fleet Carrier YIRS _Kraken_ after the shock of seeing three carriers go up, and now being consumed by fire, smoke, and explosions wore off. They launched a force of twenty-five level bombers, each carrying a single 1,500lb AP Anti-Ship Bomb, escorted by ten Fangs, they headed in the direction of the allied carrier fleet, specifically Task Force 17.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: That is all for this chapter folks! In the next exciting chapter of Strike Witches: Battle for Midway, the Neuroi strike back! Inflicting heavy casualties on Allied Task Force 17, three waves of attackers go after the force! Level Bombers, Dive Bombers, and Torpedo Bombers! Plus Admiral Nimitz gets the good news about three carriers afire and Task Force 17 being hit! All in the next exciting chapter of Strike Witches: The Battle for Midway: The Neuroi Retaliate!**


	7. The Neuroi Retailate

**A/N: Standard Disclaimers apply. Also note that this is where things get pretty ugly for Task Force 17 which at its core has the Aircraft Carriers USS** _ **Yorktown**_ **CV-5 and the IFN** _ **Kaga**_ **. Expect to see** _ **very**_ **big explosions occurring in this chapter.**

 **So with that information out of the way; Take a seat, grab a refreshment, and let's get this show a rolling!**

 **XXXX**

The strike package that the YIRS _Kraken_ launched was clawing airborne at around the same time the Liberion Dive Bombers were leaving the battle. As the planes strike planes were leaving. They began to follow the vector that VB-3 and VS-5 had used to flee the battle area. It was a course that would take them directly to TF 17.

 **XXXX**

 _1115 Hours_

The remnants of the "Flight to nowhere" returned to the USS _Hornet_. The CHAG of the _Hornet_ air group Commander Stanhope Ring, either angered that apart from VT-8 which got completely annihilated that his air group had failed to find the Neuroi Carrier fleet or was saddened by the losses that his air group has sustained with nothing to show for it. Does not report to Rear Admiral Mitscher even though he is the first pilot back. Thus the duty to report to Rear Admiral Mitscher falls to VS-8s Lieutenant Commander Walt Rodee.

 _Good lord, how I am I going to tell the Admiral? Curse you to hell Commander Ring! You should be the one reporting to the admiral, not me!_ Rodee thought as he strode onto the bridge where Admiral Mitscher was waiting.

"Ah, Lieutenant Commander Rodee! What brings you up to the bridge?" Mitscher asked after Rodee had saluted which the Admiral had returned.

"Admiral; I am here to report on the action that Air Group 8 took part in today." Rodee started.

"Alright let's hear it." Admiral Mitscher said.

"It was a debalace sir. VB-8 and VS-8 never found the enemy carriers. I don't know if VT-8 did or not, but I don't know. While VF-8 was forced to turn back, after reaching the limit of their fuel range." Rodee said explaining what had happened in a nutshell.

"My god" Mitscher breathed horrified, he had launched 59 planes from the _Hornet_ and only 20 had returned, some still lugging their 500lb AP bomb. The losses were grim for the USS _Hornet_ , with 11 SBDs and fair number of witches at Midway Island, 15 TBD-1 Devastator and 10 Torpedo Bomber Witches lost to enemy action (remember at this point they still don't know about the two survivors from VT-8 that was assigned to the carrier), 6 Wildcats and four witches being forced to ditch from fuel or magic exhaustion, and finally 3 SBDs lost at sea as well as several SBD striker units.

32 men and 10 witches lost to enemy fire without a single hit in return. After the battle RADM Mitscher would refer to the performance of the USS _Hornet_ 's air group as subpar.

However it seemed that bad luck still had the USS _Hornet_ by the balls and was refusing to let go. A friendly F4F-4 Wildcat from VF-3 of USS _Yorktown_ piloted by Ensign Daniel Sheedy he had taken a Neuroi bolt to the leg and his fighter was badly shot up. He was looking for the USS _Yorktown_ when he found the USS _Hornet_.

However and Sheedy didn't know this, but the Electric arming switch for his Wildcat's six M2 Browning Machine Guns had been hit. Thus the guns fired on landing, killing 5 crew members and a witch and injuring 20 more crew members and three witches as well.

"FUCK!" Sheedy exclaimed as the guns on his plane fired unexpectedly racking an area of the _Hornet_ 's Island with .50 caliber gun fire.

 **XXXX**

Onboard the USS _Yorktown_ only two TBDs out twelve that were launched returned, as did only one witch as well. On landing Tom Cheek's damaged Wildcat went into the crash barrier and flipped over.

 **XXXX**

Things were going somewhat better on the _Enterprise_ but not by that much. Out of twelve TBD Devastators launched against the Neuroi only five returned, among the witches out of the ten launched against the Neuroi only four returned.

Worse out of the 33 SBD-3 Dive Bombers and ten dive bomber witches, only half of the SBDs returned and only six witches returned as well.

 **XXXX**

Onboard the USS _Yorktown_ RADM Fletcher has spotted 10 SBDs from VS-5 returning from patrolling the northwestern sector. Then VB-3 returned and were forced to orbit as to not to break deck spots. Meanwhile the IFN _Kaga_ was getting ready to launch dive bombers to find and destroy the last Neuroi Aircraft Carrier.

Then suddenly RADAR picked up trouble, the ship that picked up the incoming trouble was the USS _Astoria_.

 **XXXX**

 _1200 Hours High Noon_ (Ironic right?)

The RADAR directed CAP vectors Liberion and Fusoan Fighters right onto the Neuroi strike package. A crazy dogfight erupted as the Neuroi fighters tried desperately to defend the level bombers however it is not enough.

Within a matter of minutes all six Fangs are going down in flames as are fifteen Eradicator level bombers, for the loss of three Wildcats and a Zero, and no losses among witches. For the Liberion Fighter Pilots and Witches from the _Yorktown_ it is a case of sweet revenge as they are able to give the treatment to the Neuroi that the Neuroi had given the Liberion Torpedo Bomber Squadrons. However ten planes got through coming in two waves of five, a scanty seventy seconds between them.

"Shit! Here they come! Open fire!" A Liberion Lieutenant barked a second later the Liberion made 5in/38 caliber DP gun on the _Yorktown_ boomed and sent a shell screaming towards the enemy formation.

AA fire began to fill the sky as tracers and heavy murderous flak erupted among the enemy planes. "Die, motherfuckers die!" A Fusoan AA gunner aboard the _Kaga_ barked as the Type 96 25mm AA/AT double mount came to life a rhythmic booming sending 25mm AA shells screaming toward the enemy planes. The first set of Neuroi bombers dropped their bombs. The _Kaga_ heeled hard to port and as a result the five bombs missed the Aircraft Carrier, however three landed close enough that the Aircraft Carrier shook violently. "Jesus christ!" A lookout on the Carrier said as he was sent tumbling to the deck thanks to the shockwaves produced by the near misses.

"Launch the dive bombers! Go, go, go!" Captain Jisaku Okada barked frantically. The first pair of witches began to lumber down the runway, just as the remaining five Level Bombers approached the carrier.

Tracers and flak reached up toward the lumbering aircraft, their bomb bay doors opened. One took a direct hit in the bomb bay and exploded instantly becoming a fireball and nothing else. 1.1in AA fire reached out from the USS _Portland_ , and brutally ripped the left wing and tail off another plane and it tumbled out of formation.

The remaining three Eradicator Level Bombers released their single 1,500lb Armor Piercing Anti-Ship Bomb. It was a bomb similar to this that sank the USS _Arizona_ which in a single extraordinarily violent instant become the twisted tomb for 1,102 Liberion Sailors and Witches.

On the deck of the _Kaga_ , a Dive Bomber Witch who was about to start her takeoff run when she looked up just as the enemy planes released their bombs. Her name was Ensign Yuki Ibari, she was a 16 year old witch hailing from Nagasaki Fuso; she had long chestnut brown hair and turquoise eyes, her magic ability is ballistic stabilization. Her familiar is that of a Fusoan Spitz, she is also wearing a Fusoan Imperial Navy Aviator Uniform, her weapon is a Type 99 Bolt Action Rifle.

She watched as the bombs plunged toward the Carrier. "Oh no, oh no!" She breathed, the bombs were going to hit the _Kaga_!

The first bomb plunged into the _Kaga_ forward right in the middle of the red sun on her flight deck, plunging many decks into the ship before exploding. Fire, smoke, and debris erupted forth from the flight deck and the Carrier shook like the ship had been taken over by a ghost. The second bomb plunged into the ship somewhere behind Yuki, going down several decks before exploding; a violent carpothanoty of explosions wracked the stern of the _Kaga_ fire, smoke, debris, and crew members were thrown upward by the explosions. Yuki found herself face down on the thundering twisting deck and was trying to get to her feet when the last bomb plunged into the _Kaga_. This thing plunged way down into the ship and either found a avgas bunker, a fuel oil bunker, or a aircraft ordnance magazine. Either the way the results were the same...catastrophic.

A tremendous explosion that was heard even by Task Force 16 rent the ship; a tremendous expanding upward fireball, with smoke, debris among other items went screaming skyward, a scant few seconds after that happened, another thunderous explosion ripped through the carrier, this time her hull visibly bent from the blast and large section of her hull bottom was blown out. Mere seconds after that happened another titanic blast tore through the carrier. This time the battered hull couldn't take the punishment; the carrier _jack knifed_ ; split in half by the tremendous strain that the two previous explosions had caused, the third caused the hull to reach its breaking point. The stern began to quickly and violently roll to port, large secondary explosions still ripping through the both the bow and stern sections of the ship. The stern capsized and then rapidly sank. The bow slipped quickly below the waves as well, fire and explosions still tearing through the bow as it was sliding below the waves in mere moments after the stern did. All eyes were on where the _Kaga_ had been, now however there was just an oil slick, a metric ton of debris floating on the surface, and maybe 150 sailors and witches in the water, all struggling to remain afloat and in some cases alive. The _Kaga_ and the majority of her air wing and crew, were gone. Killed in just a few brutal moments. The destruction of the _Kaga_ from the first bomb hitting her to the bow slipping beneath the waves took a grand total of one and half minutes.

Yuki found herself struggling to stay afloat, her legs felt like they were on fire, she was hurting all over. Someone grabbed her and she screamed in surprise. "Jesus! Volume Yuki! Volume!" A familiar voice said from behind Yuki. Yuki would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Lt. Ogawa, is that you?" Yuki whimpered, the edges of her vision beginning to go black.

"Yes Ensign; it's me. Everything is going to be okay. Got it? Everything will be alright." Lt. Ogawa said, soothingly. However for Yuki she was quickly losing consciousness from pain and blood loss and thus didn't completely hear what Lieutenant Ogawa was saying.

 **XXXX**

As the Neuroi bombers split away, and began to run back to the YIRS _Kraken_ something intercepted them. The thing that intercepted them was seven Zeroes and four Fusoan Fighter Witches. Plus they were mad as hell, having witnessed the loss of their carrier. Thus were not in the mood to show mercy against the fleeing Neuroi planes.

"Kill'em all! Don't let a single one escape!" One Fusoan Pilot snapped as the Zeroes and witches descended on the eight rapidly retreating level bombers.

"After them! Round Em up and bag the SOBs!" A Fusoan Witch growled without an ounce of remorse as she bagged herself an enemy plane.

Meanwhile the Liberion Fighter Pilots and Fighter Witches in the CAP was watching the carnage unfold, mainly because well, it is best not to get between a mighty pissed off carrier pilot or witch and his target unless you wanted to wind up full of holes. "Hey Badger Eleven, how many Neuroi planes do you think will escape? I bet thirty bucks that one gets away." A Liberion Pilot said.

"Thirty-five bucks saying that none of them gets away." The Liberion Witch with the callsign of Badger 11 replied.

"You're on." The Liberion pilot replied, doing his level best to kick back relax and watch the carnage.

The Fusoan Fighter Jocks and Witches showed no remorse or mercy toward the enemy planes, often first firing a burst that ripped the tail gunner to shreds, before then going screaming over the top and diving on the enemy plane and unleashing a burst of fire that would shred the engine, canopy, and pilot; causing the enemy planes to often become fiery comets of death as they plunged toward the ocean.

Not a single Neuroi Eradicator Level Bomber escaped. The Fusoans made damn sure of that, if anything. The Fusoan Fighter Pilots and Witches want to find and sink that enemy carrier and strafe the hell out of it. Only Rear Admiral Fletcher was able to convince the pilots to not go through with the plan.

In the meantime the USS _Portland_ CA-33 was busy recovering survivors. However it quickly became apparent that a tremendous loss of life had occurred. All told the _Portland_ with help from the IFN _Tanikaze_ recovered 152 survivors from the water. All of them had been injured in someway ranging from shattered Femur to 3rd degree burns and missing limbs. The total was 1,542 dead from the _Kaga_ the pilots and witches who landed on the _Yorktown_ promptly fell into a state of shock after seeing their carrier blow up in such a violent fashion and take some many friends, wingmen, and comrades in arms with her to the bottom.

 **XXXX**

At Pearl Harbor Hawaii; Admiral Nimitz was awaiting news from the allies with anticipation he was in the process of walking to his office. That was when Lt. Cmdr. John Rochefort came walking up behind him. "Admiral! Here are the first reports from the action at Midway." He said with a sharp salute.

Nimitz read it over, and smiled at the damn good news the report had. "Is this confirmed? The Fusoans got two and we got three?" Nimitz asked after returning the salute.

"Yessir that's confirmed. Admiral Fletcher's reply just came in. Two Carriers confirmed sunk and three carriers last seen heavily a fire." Rochefort replied.

"Hallelujah" Nimitz said at that moment he was thinking _Nice Admiral Fletcher and Yamamoto you certainly did bushwhack them_.

"Five of their first line carriers, Admiral. Isn't that at least worth a "hot diggity damn"?" Rochefort asked.

"I'll take it under advisement, Joe, but there's still that sixth carrier to deal with." Nimitz replied.

"Also, there is a message from Captain Buckmaster on the _Yorktown_ ; Task Force 17 has been hit by enemy planes." Rochefort stated.

"How bad?" Nimitz asked with creeping dread.

"We've lost the IFN _Kaga_ with a large portion of her crew as well. The _Yorktown_ was not hit in during the attack. They are in the process of recovering the aircraft that the _Kaga_ managed to launch." Rochefort said.

"My gosh, our whole force may be in jeopardy if the Neuroi found Task Force 17. They still got a tremendous fleet out their." Nimitz said.

"However that sixth carrier can't be that far off." Rochefort replied.

"There is a lot of truth in that." Nimitz said.

"We've already won a great victory, Admiral. Maybe we ought to get our people out of there." Rochefort stated.

"You mean...break off, run for home?" Nimitz asked.

"Before they can hurt us , sir." Rochefort replied.

"Well, that might be the smart play, Commander. Trouble is I _want_ that sixth carrier." Nimitz said.

"I know what you mean by that, Admiral." Rochefort said before he saluted and then walked away.

 _Can't wait to tell Admiral Yamamoto, this is the best damn news we could have received!_ Nimitz thought as he walked toward the command room to tell Admiral Yamamoto the good news.

 **XXXX**

Back on board the YIRS _Kraken_ ; the Commanding officer, ordered a second strike launched ASAP, this time composed of twenty-two dive bombers and escorted by twelve fighters. This force took off a mere forty-five minutes after the level bombers did.

The Neuroi dive bombers took off into the air, each one lugging a 250 kilogram or a 550lb Armor Piercing Anti-Ship Bomb and were closely followed by the fighters.

A mere Eighty minutes after the dive bomber force was launched, the dregs of the Level bomber/Torpedo Bomber force on the _Kraken_ was launched. Twelve Torpedo Bombers and nine Fighters. The torpedo bombers were each lugging a 900 kilogram or 1984 pound torpedo.

 **XXXX**

With Task Force 17 under attack; VB-3 was forced to recover on the USS _Enterprise_ CV-6. However not all of the aircraft make it to the carrier. Lieutenant Commander Leslie had to ditch near the USS _Astoria_ due to fuel exhaustion. He ditched safely and was picked up by the heavy cruiser.

 **XXXX**

 _1340 Hours_

However the attack on Task Force 17 had resulted in a carrier sunk. This was an astounding turn of events in the battle. The Allies were not going to get off scot free in terms of ship losses afterward.

Then the USS _Pensacola_ picked up more trouble on RADAR. Incoming planes, Neuroi attack aircraft. As the all Liberion CAP was vectored on to the enemy planes. Captain Buckmaster tries to launch what planes he could; the last thing the allies needed was to have two aircraft carriers becoming roaring infernos.

However during the flight to Task Force 17 the Neuroi fighters had gotten separated from the Dive Bombers thanks to miscommunication, and thus leaving the Dive Bombers with no fighter cover.

Nevertheless the Neuroi Dive Bombers attacked and were assailed by Wildcats and Witches all the way in to the Liberion Carrier _Yorktown_. Caught with no fighter cover, most of the dive bombers were shot down, however eight got through the Fighter Screen and went for the _Yorktown_.

"Die bastard!" A Liberion AA Gunner barked as his M2 Browning Machine Gun roared to life, sending tracers streaking toward an enemy dive bombers. The rapid fire chatter of the M2 Brownings, 20mm Oerlikons, and Fusoan 13mm AA guns joined the deep constant thumping of the Quad 1.1in Anti-Aircraft Guns and 25mm Type 96 AA/AT Guns and the deep booms of the 5in/38 caliber DP guns and Fusoan 5in/50 caliber DP Guns.

Yet it was not enough despite the incredible volume of fire being put up, one Dive Bomber was nailed by triple A. The others entered their dives. The _Yorktown_ was frantically maneuvering however, unlike the three Neuroi Carriers earlier in the day. The _Yorktown_ was not going to become a roaring inferno from stem to stern. Far from it in fact, due to several factors.

The crew of the _Yorktown_ was very much experienced in the art of damage control. When enemy planes had been detected on RADAR the avgas lines were purged with CO2 that way the chance of an explosion was greatly reduced. Another thing the _Yorktown_ had going for it, was unlike the Neuroi and Fusoan Aircraft Carrier her hangar decks are open air, thus fumes cannot collect and reach dangerous levels in the hangar deck. Among other preparations was pushing an 800 gallon auxiliary fuel tank over the side, halting refueling operations for the CAP, and securing all compartments, giving the carrier full watertight integrity.

The first five Neuroi dive bombers missed, but the next three didn't. However the three dive bombers responsible for the hits were shot down either shortly after releasing their payloads or in the case of one dive bomber just as it was dropping its payload.

The first bomb that hit the _Yorktown_ was released from its dive bomber just as it was riddled with AA fire and went tumbling out of control. The bomb tumbled through air, instead of nose down, thus it didn't have much penetrating power. It impacted abaft of aircraft elevator number 2 and exploded on impact. The explosion carved a 10 foot square hole in the flight deck and sent splinters flying which killed or incapacitated most of the crew for the two Quad 1.1in gun mounts aft of the island. Fragments pierced the flight deck and damaged three planes and started fires. One of the planes was an SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber, it was fully fueled and had a 1000lb AP bomb attached. However quick action by Lieutenant A. C. Emerson who activated the sprinkler system stopped the fire that had started below decks from becoming too serious.

"Jesus, I _don't_ want to think of what would have happened if that fully fueled and armed SBD had exploded." Emerson said panting shortly after engaging the sprinkler system.

"I don't even want to know sir." A Liberion Machinist Mate replied..

Moments later two more bombs struck the _Yorktown_.

The second bomb struck the ship from the portside. It punched through the flight deck and exploded in the lower part of the funnel. The damage that resulted from this hit was very severe. For the _Yorktown_ still had damage from the Battle of Coral Sea that had yet to be completed, she only had five boilers working. The bomb ruptured the uptake box for three separate boilers and extinguished the fires in all five boilers, and caused smoke and gases to begin to fill the boiler rooms. However the men at Boiler One managed to relight Boiler one relatively quickly most likely while the attack was still going on, which undoubtedly played a part in making sure the ship didn't become a viking's funeral boat. The reason for this is while one boiler can't propel 20,000 odd tons of Aircraft Carrier it did allow enough steam pressure to be kept so the auxiliary systems could run.

The third bomb that slammed into the USS _Yorktown_ pierced the side of the number one elevator and detonated on the fourth deck and started a persistent fire in the rag storage space which was adjacent to the forward gasoline stowage and magazines. However no devastating explosion occurred because just before the attack had begun the avgas lines were purged with CO2 this heavier than air gas certainly prevented that from happening.

The Neuroi dive bombers having most of their number shot down, and after scoring three bomb hits, left the _Yorktown_ behind. Her speed had slowed down considerably down from 20 knots to 6 knots, shortly after that the _Yorktown_ was dead in the water. Yet while this Aircraft Carrier was down she wasn't out, her highly experienced crew set to work repairing the damage from the Neuroi attack, which included extinguishing the fires, patching the flight deck, and relighting the four boilers that their fires put out. In the less than two hours the USS _Yorktown_ had once again risen from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix had gotten back up and was ready to fight again. It is for reasons like this that her and her crew are the stuff of legends.

Yet _Yorktown_ wasn't out of the woods yet. For more trouble was picked up on RADAR coming in. The CAP that the _Yorktown_ had up was composed of six Wildcats and one witch.

 **XXXX**

 _1450_

 _Second Neuroi Attack against the Yorktown commences_

The Neuroi Torpedo Bombers stumbled across what they assumed was a second Liberion Aircraft Carrier. However in fact it was actually the USS _Yorktown_ but she was misidentified as another Aircraft Carrier because she was no longer afire, the holes in her flight deck had been patched, and she was moving at 20 knots.

Again RADAR on one of the Cruisers this time the USS _Pensacola_ which had been released by Admiral Kinkaid to go and aid the stricken Task Force 17. The Liberions directed several four Wildcats and the lone witch to engage the enemy.

While this is happening Captain Buckmaster orders to launch as many planes as humanly possible. Some of the planes practically rocket into the air as out of the Ten Wildcat Fighters sitting on the flight deck; eight had as little as 23 Gallons of Fuel onboard.

Meanwhile the Zero Fighters were launched as well, but most of them had no ammunition but had been refueled and were ordered to haul-ass to Task Force 16 or Task Force 18. The Fusoan Fighter Witches that were flight capable who were on the _Yorktown_ had a different problem besides still being angry over the fact that their "Home away from Home" was gone. The problem was that again a good number of them were low on Ammunition for their weapons, not to mention the _Yorktown_ didn't have ammunition for Fusoan Weapons on hand. They were forced to use Liberion Weapons had to be given a quick run through on how to use them, but that had only happened after the Neuroi Dive Bomber attack and the Fusoan Witches were still getting used to the Liberion Weapons when the Neuroi Torpedo Bombers attacked. However if anything the _Yorktown_ took a special meaning to the Fusoan Fighter Pilots and Witches from the _Kaga_ as they had worked tirelessly to help save the ship. Yet now both the Fusoan Zeroes and Witches were launched and flew towards Task Force 16 or 18.

 **XXXX**

In the chaos in the skies, Lieutenant Commander Jane Thach couldn't believe the day she was having today. First during her escort mission she had splashed four Neuroi Fighters, then during the dive bomber attack she had earned herself her fifth kill, she was an "Ace" in a day! (Becoming an "Ace" in a day is something that all fighter pilots dream about because it is so difficult to achieve destroying five enemy planes in one day) Little did she know but her day was far from over.

At the moment however she was locked in a turning fight with a Fang, while doing a turn fight with a Fang in a Wildcat was tantamount to suicide, a Witch could get away with it. Unlike the previous wave these fighters had stayed with Torpedo Planes and were providing a serious challenge to the Liberion CAP. Finally Thach drew bead on the Fang she was looked in combat she was about to pull the trigger when suddenly tracers ripped into the enemy plane and it exploded, suddenly a familiar Wildcat went screaming by her.

"Hey! Badger Four no fair! That was mine! You stole my kill!" Jane growled.

"Gotta be quicker than that Thach!" Lt. Reid said cheekily.

 _Smart-ass_ Jane thought as she dove out of the chaos that was the dogfight against the Fangs and went after the Torpedo planes were two other Wildcats were already engaging.

The Neuroi Torpedo Bombers were quickly approaching the _Yorktown_.

 **XXXX**

(Note, I did not make any of the stuff in the following section up; this really happened)

One last Wildcat fighter was still sitting on the Flight Deck waiting for his moment to take off. The name of the pilot was Ensign Milton Tootle IV. "Alright here we go!" Milton said as he fired up the engine to his Wildcat and advanced the throttles. Milton looked to his left and spotted an Eradicator Torpedo Bomber bearing down the _Yorktown_.

"Alright, come on you rotten bastard! You want to mess with me?" Tootle growled as he swung his Wildcat fighter toward the enemy plane. With no chance to even raise his landing gear, he turned and attacked the enemy torpedo bomber. The six M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine guns roared to life, bright yellow tracers stitched across the enemy torpedo bomber and it exploded into flames and fell from the sky. "Got him!" Milton exalted jubilantly as the enemy plane plunged toward the ocean.

Suddenly a large black puff of smoke erupted near his Wildcat and the plane shook violently. _Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!_ Milton thought frantically as he increased throttle and began to raise his landing gear. The allied AA gunners were shooting at him! Moments later however a flak burst erupted right in front of his fighter, shrapnel pockmarked his Wildcat and flames began to lick out of the engine. "That's done it!" Milton barked angrily as he reached up and yanked the emergency release for the cockpit canopy. The canopy came of with a loud _thud!_ Milton then bailed out of his stricken Wildcat which then began to plunge toward the ocean. He opened his chute, sighed dejectedly then looked at his watch and was surprised. From takeoff to bail out he was in the air for all of five minutes. _Most interesting five minutes of my life, I swear._ Milton thought.

 **XXXX**

Yet the fight was raging on still. The other Neuroi Torpedo Bombers split into two groups and came at the _Yorktown_ from two separate sides. It was a classic "Hammer and Anvil" attack; Four Eradicators approached from the starboard side astern and five Eradicators approached from the Portside.

However as this was happening one of the sections was led by Air Commander Eirkaka, who happened to be the best torpedo bomber commander in the entire Ysterplaat Imperial Navy. Suddenly a Liberion Fighter Witch swung in and lined up his plane. It Lieutenant Commander Jane S. Thach, latched onto the six o'clock of this torpedo bomber and fired a long burst from her twin .30 Caliber AN/M2 Machine Guns. First white smoke and then black smoke and flames poured forth from the torpedo bomber and the plane fell from the sky in flames. It was like a scene right out of a Hollywood movie as the United States Navy Top Fighter Witch personally shoots down the Ysterplaat Imperial Navy's best torpedo bomber commander.

However the remaining three torpedo bombers coming from the starboard side dropped their torpedoes. The _Yorktown_ heeled over hard to port, and caused the three torpedoes to miss, with one passing within twenty feet or so of the Liberion Carrier. However the maneuver had put the other section of torpedo bombers in perfect perpendicular position relative to the _Yorktown_ to drop their fish, there was no way in the hell the _Yorktown_ could dodge all of these torpedoes.

 **XXXX**

 _1520 Hours_

The _Yorktown_ heels hard to Starboard try and evade the five torpedoes that were launched at her. However it took time for the carrier to begin to turn. Two Neuroi torpedoes slammed into the _Yorktown_ and exploded. Both ripped 15 foot diameter holes into the _Yorktown_ 's side, extinguishing all of her boilers and thus the ability to run the pumps and also jammed her rudder. The Carrier drifts to a stop and begins to list, for the _Yorktown_ her battle is over and now the carrier is in a fight to survive so she can make it back to Pearl Harbor and safety for much needed repairs.

 **XXXX**

 _1533 Hours_

However by 1533 Hours, the list was at 23 degrees and with no steam to run the pumps and the list was still increasing. As the list approached 26 Degrees Captain Buckmaster and Commander C. E. Aldrich had a brief discussion that led to grave conclusion.

"Commander Aldrich!" Captain Buckmaster barked when he spotted the member of Damage Control.

"Captain" Aldrich said, knowing how bad the situation was, they had done away with formality.

"How bad does it look?" Buckmaster asked, he knew that his ship was most likely lost.

"Sir, we're going to lose the ship. We are listing 26 degrees to port and the list is still increasing, she is probably going to capsize on us and fairly soon too, I'd wager. I mean while she may be tough, I doubt that she can come back from this sort of damage." Aldrich said dejectedly.

"I understand, thanks Commander." Buckmaster said sadly.

"What are going to do sir?"" Aldrich asked.

"Commander; I am going to have to issue the one order I never thought I would have to order. In order to save as many of the ship's company as possible, we are going to abandon the _Yorktown_." Buckmaster said.

 **XXXX**

The order went out and the crew acted professionally. The process only took a few minutes. First the wounded were lowered into life rafts which then headed out for the accompanying Cruisers, Destroyers, and lone Battleship to be picked up by their boats before returning to the _Yorktown_. While this was going on, the Executive Officer left the _Yorktown_ via a line on the starboard side. (That is a really long, _long_ , _**long**_ way down). Captain Buckmaster during the time that the ship was being abandoned toured his ship one last time, to search for anyone still alive that could be trapped aboard the dying Carrier. Finding no one alive on the ship, Buckmaster then lowered himself into the water via a line on the stern, by this point water was beginning to lap into the carrier's hangar deck on the portside.

But the _Yorktown_ somehow against all odds, remained stubbornly afloat. Captain Buckmaster was picked up by the Liberion Destroyer USS _Hammann_ , afterward he transferred to the USS _Astoria_ which was the ship that Admiral Fletcher had transferred his flag to after the first dive bomber attack on the _Yorktown_. The two men agreed that since the _Yorktown_ was remaining stubbornly afloat, that an attempt to salvage the leadship of the _Yorktown_ -class of aircraft carriers should be attempted. However it first had to been seen that the Carrier survived the night, which was rapidly approaching.

 **XXXX**

Around the time that the _Yorktown_ was being abandoned things again went sour for the Neuroi. The YIRS _Kraken_ was discovered and a force of Liberion Dive Bombers escorted by Fusoan Zeroes took off to sink her.

 **XXXX**

 **A/N: There you have it! The** _ **Kaga**_ **has been sunk and the** _ **Yorktown**_ **has been heavily damaged; however in the next chapter the YIRS** _ **Kraken**_ **meets her end as does the YIRS** _ **Dunbal**_ **. One is destroyed by Liberion Dive Bombers while the other is done in by the Fusoan Submarine I-168, as well as the destruction of a Neuroi Heavy Cruiser, by planes from VMSB-241, VB-8, and VB-6, plus the end of the USS** _ **Yorktown**_ **CV-5, and lastly the discovery of the wreck of the USS** _ **Yorktown**_ **!**

 **All in the next exciting chapter of Strike Witches The Battle for Midway: Endgame!**


End file.
